Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

It’s always darkest before the other shoe drops.

People are complicated. Love is not.

A last alliance of elves and men. also pet photos.

JFC, are there no editors left at that goddamn rag?

The revolution will be supervised.

It may be funny to you motherfucker, but it’s not funny to me.

The willow is too close to the house.

I like you, you’re my kind of trouble.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

Let there be snark.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

This has so much WTF written all over it that it is hard to comprehend.

Hot air and ill-informed banter

Everybody saw this coming.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

He really is that stupid.

“What are Republicans afraid of?” Everything.

It’s easy to sit in safety and prescribe what other people should be doing.

Schmidt just says fuck it, opens a tea shop.

Imperialist aggressors must be defeated, or the whole world loses.

Impressively dumb. Congratulations.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

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Reader Interactions

163Comments

  2. 2.

    JPL

    wow.. David Ortez is the only one? If he hits again tonight and the Sox win, then the MVP will be black.

    also, too… go sox.. guess Ortez won’t be hitting much because they aren’t giving him anything to hit.

  5. 5.

    Redshirt

    It’s a shame, since – co-incidentally! – baseball players have far longer careers for much, much better money, and have far fewer health consequences after retiring.

  6. 6.

    beltane

    This is the first time in my life that I’m hoping the Red Sox win anything. I just can’t separate the Cardinals from that “Get a brain morans” guy.

  10. 10.

    cathyx

    Only one African American in the world series? Maybe not every dark skinned person is from Africa.

  12. 12.

    JCJ

    @Redshirt:

    pretentious art douche Tom Levenson.

    I had forgotten that. I loved the fact that Mr Levenson then used that as his nym for a while. I also liked when DougJ was the “business and economics editor at balloon juice.”

  16. 16.

    jl

    I did not know that there was only one African-American player in the world series.

    I first read the title as the ‘Only One-African American in the World’ series, which seemed untrue (though points for being counterintuitive and clever). And if there were only one, how could there be a series on it?

    So, I’ll give it a read.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    @rea: The article is about exciting or encouraging the youth to play baseball.
    I was raised in the MA and back in the olden days, recreation depts would bus children to the Sox games and it was affordable.

  19. 19.

    different-church-lady

    Dear Jeremey’s parents: JEREMY HAS A PHONE!!! JUST CALL HIM ON IT!!!!! YOU’RE IDIOTS!!!!!!!

  20. 20.

    lamh36

    I can def see the authors point. I know that in my immediate circle, I don’t really know anyone who follows baseball closely. The majority of my cousins played football or basketball (my cousin was playing for Kosovo, i think…in the European league).

    I don’t know of any who are interested in baseball at all. Which is pretty interesting considering the whole Negro Leagues and how big a deal intergration of baseball was.

  23. 23.

    jl

    Not much to the article, IMHO. Says the lack of African-Americans is cultural, not racial. And that African-Americans are given opportunity to learn and play the game, but they say “no thanks”. Based on what evidence?

    On whose part is it cultural and not racial? It doesn’t fit into African-American culture from that community’s point of view. Or cultural in that African-Americans and poorer communities in the U.S. (in general) don’t have as much opportunity to participate in many cultural aspects of middle and higher income American life anymore? Because, maybe majority non-Hispanic Whites want it that way? Then it’s cultural and racial (as in prejudice).

    I’m not a big fan of NFL anymore, so I guess I am a ‘niche’ American too.

  26. 26.

    different-church-lady

    @efgoldman: 1) Back at the old Garden I got good at buying obstructed view seats and then staking out great empty ones. This includes the night of that last Bruins special exhibition game there, unbelievably.

    The guys at the box office also knew there were four seats way up in the corners that were listed as obstructed view but actually let you see the entire ice. One of them tipped me off one time, “Always ask for these seats. We usually give ’em to kids, but if we haven’t we’ll give ’em to you.”
    2) In ’95 baseball was still suffering from the strike the year before. The Sox magic number for the division was down to 1, and I heard on the radio that afternoon that there were still tickets for that night’s game. I thought to myself, “Hmmm… never seen a team clinch anything with my own eyes, guess this is my chance.” I went down to the box office, and there were seats in the right field grandstand to be had. I saw Mo Vaughn ride that police horse with my own eyes that night.

  27. 27.

    beltane

    @jl: I wonder if this is limited to African-Americans. In the rural New England community I live in I’ve noticed a steady loss of interest in baseball among children over the past decade. Several of the smaller towns near me don’t even have Little League teams anymore while the larger towns have reduced their number of teams. There is even less interest at the high school level. I’d blame video games except that basketball and soccer are still very popular.

  31. 31.

    MattR

    @jl: I think baseball has lost its appeal to urban kids regardless of race. Among my parents’ friends and my friends’ parents, there are quite a few guys who grew up playing stickball on the streets of Brooklyn (or elsewhere). Among my generation it is mostly pickup basketball. I don’t know what caused that change, but I don’t think there is much doubt that it occurred.

  32. 32.

    raven

    @beltane: Baseball sucks. I spent 20+ years in municipal parks and rec running sports programs. Go to any little league field in the country and you’ll find big holes dug in left, center and right where the kids stand there all summer hoping ball doesn’t come to them and kicking the dirt.

  37. 37.

    trollhattan

    ZOMG, the web ads are now trolling BJ. The rotating ad top center is for dronz that we can buy, our own civilian selves.

  38. 38.

    Wally Ballou

    That could be the Series right here.

    No real rooting interest for me, but I always hate to see baseball end. Couldn’t care less about football (pro or college), or the NBA. Don’t really get into college hoops until the tourney. And the NHL has done its level best to make regular-season hockey a meaningless (if entertaining) affair.

  41. 41.

    Darkrose

    @lamh36: I’ve definitely noticed that there are very few non-Latina black folks at Giants games, but purely anecdotally, there seem to be a lot more black A’s fans.

  44. 44.

    Anne Laurie

    @lamh36:

    I don’t know of any who are interested in baseball at all. Which is pretty interesting considering the whole Negro Leagues and how big a deal intergration of baseball was.

    Yeah, I am probably the least qualified FPer, not excluding SarahP&T, to talk about sports. But from what I’ve read, integrating baseball was important because in those days, baseball really was the national pastime, every town of any pretention had a field and at least a semi-pro team, and “everybody” played it as a kid / paid some attention to the national teams if only to have something to talk about. Football was still a niche sport, something for college kids — and basketball was for urban high schools that couldn’t afford space for baseball diamonds, or all that equipment. (Even in the late 1960s/early 1970s, basketball was the “prestige” sport at all the NYC high schools; my all-girls parochial school had a very competitive team, but no cheerleading squad. It was a sore point with the nuns that none of “our” players had athletic scholarships to compete for, but the much-less-successful boys’ team on the other side of the building scrounged up at least a couple college slots every year! )

  45. 45.

    Wally Ballou

    @raven: At least “boring” baseball doesn’t involve exploited, underpaid (and largely black/brown) pieces of meat destroying each other’s bodies and brains for the amusement of bloodthirsty, low-attention-span meatheads.

    Christ, but I’m tired of football and football fans.

  46. 46.

    beltane

    @raven: I agree. This summer we breathed a sigh of relief when my son, who played Little League up until just before his 13th birthday, told us he was done with baseball and would not be playing in middle school. He took the game seriously but the majority of his teammates were there because their parents made them. It was torture watching those games.

  48. 48.

    raven

    @Omnes Omnibus: Yea, I have nothing against it I juts think it’s a lousy game for kind in terms of actual activity and fitness for the long run. I’m also saddened that softball has devolved in terms of popularity in many places. When I was in Urbana I have 137 teams and Champaign had the same. There are fewer than half that many now.

  55. 55.

    SiubhanDuinne

    @Anne Laurie:

    scrounged up at least a couple college slots every year!

    Anne Laurie Anne Laurie Anne Laurie ::shakes head sadly:: You know eemom’s gonna get you for that.

  58. 58.

    Darkrose

    There’s a conversation about this going on right now on the Baseball Nation blog, and some of the comments are really insightful, even though the post author’s kind of a tool.

    It’s something that’s been bugging me for a while, ever since I realized that the team of Mays, Irvin, McCovey and Bonds currently has a grand total of zero African American players. I think there are a number of factors:

    –MLB’s inability to market its players–everyone’s heard of LeBron James; how many people who aren’t baseball fans know who Andrew McCutchen is?

    –the cost of youth sports and baseball in particular in the US,

    –the lack of places to play in urban areas

    –the lack of available scholarships

    –the delayed reward and perception that you can make more money playing basketball or football

    –the WASPy culture of the game that says “don’t draw attention to yourself”

    –good old fashion racism: the attitude that baseball takes skill and intelligence that other sports don’t, and that good baseball players are “students of the game” as opposed to the “natural athletes” in other sports.

  61. 61.

    lamh36

    Speaking of baseball-like sports in AA neighborhoods, here’s a test for ya’ll to use on anybody you know who claims to be born and raised in New Orleans.

    Aside from the unique slang terms, ask them if they have ever played “Cool Can”?

    If they say yes, then you can rest assured that they are truly from NOLA, the 9th ward at least…lol.

    ETA: ETA: Man, I remember those days. Kids dont’ go outside to play much nowadays do they…smdh.

  62. 62.

    Schlemizel

    @Redshirt:

    If he still juiced as hard as he did for football he still would have destroyed his skeletal structure and been out early

  64. 64.

    NotMax

    @lamh36

    Little known is that the semi-pro House of David team hired Satchel Paige when the major leagues wouldn’t have considered doing so (before 1930), and also that there was an all African-American team in the Negro Leagues called the Black House of David.

  65. 65.

    Schlemizel

    @Wally Ballou:

    I’m with you. But MLB is trying to kill the game. It seems like baseball is the least important thing going on at the stadium & certainly unimportant to the announcers on TV & radio. Baseball is the perfect pace for a summer day & every time we go to a game I see something I have never seen before. Its a nice way to unwind. We made the rounds of some minor league games this summer & it was great. People actually watched the game, stayed in their seats during innings, it was a lot of fun.

  66. 66.

    Anne Laurie

    @Darkrose: All excellent points.

    My dad, who grew up in NYC in the 1940s, used to tell us that the smart kids — especially the Jewish kids — were supposed to be the best stickball players, while basketball was considered a new-fangled novelty for mean bullies, i.e., the dumber Irish kids, the Polish Catholics, and the Italians. There’s always a hierarchy of prejudice, only the nouns change!

  67. 67.

    gian

    MLB has been trying to reach out. See http://web.mlbcommunity.org/index.jsp?content=programs&program=rbi

    For me the laser focus on individual players isn’t all that great for people who are team or city fans, but it sure has worked for David Stern and the NBA…
    That said I think mlb is killing itself by chasing TV deals with games that go past midnight. Parents of school kids might let them stay up for a world series game but regular season?
    And get a damn pitch clock speed the game up. No Good reason that it takes longer to pitch than Peyton Manning to call an audible

  70. 70.

    S. Holland

    Go Sox!!!! Yup, Drew! If you’re a Red Sox fan it’s a great game…….uh so far…fingers crossed!

  71. 71.

    Yatsuno

    @Schlemizel:

    If he still juiced as hard as he did for football he still would have destroyed his skeletal structure and been out early

    He already has. He’s had both his hips replaced. I have to do the same thing for the same reason, though my steriod use was as a treatment for another condition as opposed to anabolic. Momma didn’t raise no dummies on that point.

  72. 72.

    Wally Ballou

    @hilts: There’s an interesting Rorschach-test quality to that classic Carlin bit. Show it to a roomful of football fans, and they’ll be convinced that he’s praising their sport and slamming baseball. Show it to a bunch of baseball fans, and they’ll arrive at the opposite conclusion.

    Just completely different games, with completely different cultures, appealing to completely different constituencies.

  74. 74.

    KG

    @Darkrose: I agree about baseball being terrible marketing it’s players. And it’s not limited to black players, most people probably don’t know who Clayton Kershaw is. But football is probably more costly than baseball (need pads and helmets plus I’m guessing liability insurance is going to be going up). Can’t speak to availability of fields in urban areas. As for scholarships, while there are fewer in baseball than say football or basketball, a baseball player can be drafted straight out of high school and make money right away. A lot of guys choose college football over minor league baseball – because, as you said you can make more quicker (this is especially true with basketball when you factor in endorsement deals). Baseball’s unwritten rules stuff is really annoying, but you see certain aspects of that in football (see Akabama and New England or taunting/celebration rules), and even to a certain extent in basketball (San Antonio comes to mind). So I’m not sure that plays that big a role. And I really don’t buy the “student of the game” thing. Kobe and LeBron are praised for that attribute in basketball (basketball/football IQ is the new buzz word for the “eye test” crowd).

    The truth is, baseball has lost ground in popular culture. Fifty years ago it was baseball, boxing, and horse racing. All three of those have lost their place. I listen to a lot of sports radio, and they say the same thing: baseball sells locally, meaning New York wants to hear about the Yankees and the Meta, LA wants to hear about the Dodgers and Angels, but neither town wants to hear about the Cardinals. Go to football and basketball and everyone wants to hear about the Broncos, Patriots, and Heat.

  75. 75.

    different-church-lady

    @gian:

    That said I think mlb is killing itself by chasing TV deals with games that go past midnight.

    Keep in mind this is only the case for people on Eastern time.

  76. 76.

    Violet

    @efgoldman:

    Pawtucket Red Sox (AAA) are a great take. Cozy but really nice 6500 seat stadium, I don’t think there’s a ticket in the place that’s more than eight bucks, none of that nine-dollar hot dog bullcrap. Free parking, even.

    I wish more sports were like this–cheap tickets, cheap food, free or cheap parking. That makes it affordable for families. I don’t know who can afford to go to NFL games–the whole thing is ridiculously expensive unless you’ve got access to corporate tickets somehow.

  78. 78.

    different-church-lady

    @Cassidy: How is it? And how much was it?

    I have some Bullit rye — not knocked out by it, but it wasn’t that expensive either.

  79. 79.

    Wally Ballou

    @Schlemizel: Oh, I agree wholeheartedly about the deterioration of the in-game experience in baseball. I always thought one of the great attractions for baseball was precisely that it was so laid-back and old-timer and anachronistic, but Selig and co. have done their level best to chuck all that in a vain attempt to chase the ADD demographic.

    The Fox approach to the game’s TV coverage (endless closeups and quick cuts) stems from the same misguided effort. Yuck.

  80. 80.

    Cassidy

    @different-church-lady: I’m new to drinking whiskey neat, but so far I like it. I’ve been letting it sit on my tongue for a sec to try and sort it out and get and idea of what I should be tasting. It has a very sweet, vanilla smell and taste at first and I really like that.

    $24.99 for the bottle. Five more than the Jack Daniel’s Honey I’ve been infatuated with.

  81. 81.

    mainmati

    Go Sox! I was one of those who also grew up with a baseball mitt, carefully massaged. Everybody played ball, in my case usually on Pittsburgh side streets or sand lots, but it was ubiquitous. And I actually got to talk to “Bob” Clemente (as he was then called) who was completely accessible to the kids outside Forbes Field. It was a different culture (also the Steelers were dreadful back then).

    MLB remains a neo-feudal backwater and is actively driving the game into a ditch, IMO.

  84. 84.

    pseudonymous in nc

    We have a minor league team here and I see a couple of games every summer, and you get to see the young players on their way either up the ranks or set for a short career of long bus rides and not much money. Not many African-Americans in those A-ball teams either.

    MLB supposedly has been doing inner-city outreach, but that doesn’t go very far.

    It’s not a dissimilar conversation from the one in the English-speaking Caribbean asking why kids aren’t playing cricket, given the heritage and one-time dominance of the West Indies. The reason is generally that other sports and other activities have squeezed its position.

    These things go through phases. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t ask questions about whether there are active disincentives, but the active incentives seem to be greater in other communities.

  86. 86.

    Darkrose

    @efgoldman: I was stunned when my boss told me how he wasn’t going to Spring Training because he had to spend $5000 on gear and fees for ONE of his three daughters’ soccer leagues.

  87. 87.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Wally Ballou:

    The Fox approach to the game’s TV coverage (endless closeups and quick cuts) stems from the same misguided effort. Yuck.

    I may or may not be watching the MLB International feed to avoid FOX. It’s the commentary that goes to the armed forces and English-language broadcasters around the world.

  88. 88.

    Cassidy

    @Omnes Omnibus: I don’t drink scotch, but I’m guessing that there is a price point where it doesn’t get better with additional benjamins.

    And you have to admit, root beer can be awesome.

  89. 89.

    Wally Ballou

    @pseudonymous in nc: Shulman and Hershiser for me. I’ve always thought baseball was a better radio sport anyway.

    Assuming the Sox hold on for the win, this will be their first WS championship clinched at home since 1918, right?

  91. 91.

    Botsplainer

    Just want to point out that in the Star Trek canon, the last World Series was played in 2053, and won by the London Kings (DS9, Season 1).

    At this rate, MLB won’t get there.

  92. 92.

    Darkrose

    @KG: There’s a cultural shift that’s certainly there–thanks, ESPN!. I think it’s a combination of things.

    As for scholarships, while there are fewer in baseball than say football or basketball, a baseball player can be drafted straight out of high school and make money right away.

    More and more, the only guys drafted out of high school are pitchers. And the amount of money you make in the minors is a pittance compared to what a star NBA player makes in his rookie year. Hell, the MLB minimum is half a million, which sounds like a lot until you compare it to rookie salaries in football and basketball.

    And I really don’t buy the “student of the game” thing. Kobe and LeBron are praised for that attribute in basketball (basketball/football IQ is the new buzz word for the “eye test” crowd).

    I think it’s still a thing in baseball. Pablo Sandoval is praised for being a natural talent (when people aren’t bitching about his weight), but Buster Posey is praised for being dedicated and focused. During the NLDS, I actually heard an announcer express shock that McCutchen was watching film before a game, saying that he knew he was a “natural athlete” and was surprised that he was also “a student of the game.”

  93. 93.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Cassidy: With that scotch, you would be paying for rarity as opposed to quality. In general, if I want a casual scotch, I’ll just a have a Famous Grouse. It’s a decent and popular blended scotch. About $22 a bottle here in WI. Single malts cost more, but if you pay more than $75 for a bottle, you must have an ultra refined palate or you trying to impress someone.

  94. 94.

    Yatsuno

    @Botsplainer: According to Star Trek, there was also supposed to be a world war in 1999 started by an Indian dictator that wiped out half the Earth’s population and resulted in partial nuclear devastation. The show’s future inaccuracy does NOT bother me. Although it did predict cell phones and iPads well.

  99. 99.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Cassidy: I would say that you won’t get any more enjoyment from the taste of a fancy booze than you would from a decent mid-priced one. Save the money.

  104. 104.

    NotMax

    @Botsplainer

    won by the London Kings (DS9, Season 1)

    Which reminds me of a cute throwaway bit from an episode of Red Dwarf.

    In his own version of counting to ten, a guy recites the names of British monarchs, sequentially.

    The camera cuts back to him from time to time (still reciting). In the last cut, he’s intoning “King George, Queen Elizabeth, King Charles, King Harry, Queen Shaniqua…”

  105. 105.

    Yatsuno

    @Cassidy: The nice part is the further you get away from smoking, the more that damage will reverse itself, especially at your relative young age. You’ll probably be tasting things you haven’t enjoyed in years.

  108. 108.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @Darkrose:

    the amount of money you make in the minors is a pittance compared to what a star NBA player makes in his rookie year.

    If you’re a good college player in football or basketball, you’re getting a national stage at a young age — and let’s be honest here, at a big school, you’re also getting some sweet under-the-table goodies from boosters as long as they don’t cross the NCAA’s slapdown threshold. There aren’t many prized recruits driving beaters.

    That scotch, btw, is entirely a collector’s item. There are expensive bottles where you might consider the expense worthwhile; there are scotches I’ve drunk that are now worth ten times what I paid for them back in the day (Port Ellen, a 25-y-o Macallan, a rare Glenmorangie bottling) and I’m glad that I got the chance to drink them then, rather than now, when the impulse would be to hoard them.

  109. 109.

    Wally Ballou

    @efgoldman:

    To an older generation of sportscasters/sportswriters, “natural athlete” meant melanin-enhanced, while paler players were “highly intelligent” or had a “high [name the sport] IQ,” or were “brilliant students of the game.”

    Or “knew how to hustle”. (Not to be confused, of course, with “hustling”. Or, heaven forbid, “race hustling”.)

  110. 110.

    Uncle Ebeneezer

    @mainmati: Wow. My Dad (a Northside native who still raves about the Mazeroski homer) would be totally jealous. Total Clemente fan boy. We had an uncle that owned a pool hall where the Steelers all used to hang out. There were picks of all the legends on the wall (Franco, Joe Greene, etc.) Not sure what happened to it after uncle passed away.

  112. 112.

    NotMax

    @Yatsuno

    Pfeh. Not necessarily a universal degradation.

    Been smoking for nearly 50 years (cigars, mostly), and the taste buds are more acute than 99% of my acquaintances who don’t or have never smoked.

    When I cook for our weekly gathering of a dozen or more, there are actually one of two who deign to complain that while the flavors of my offerings are delicious, they are “too complex.”

  113. 113.

    different-church-lady

    @Wally Ballou: I remember being sensitized to this many years ago, and I’m pleased to report that in my (nonscientific) monitoring of modern broadcasters will talk about intelligence in black players just as often as white.

  114. 114.

    MikeJ

    3 outs left
    142 days until opening day (although it’s a week earlier than usual because of the playing in Australia stunt.)

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    @Cassidy

    You know who else was tobacco-free…

    /not enough Godwin on this thread

    @Omnes Omnibus

    Old joke (stripped down version):

    Club of very wealthy men decides to start a plan to get a tax break through the scheme of purchasing a tin of (supposedly) “rare” anchovies among themselves, the price increasing each time. This goes on for years and years, well into the third generation of offspring, by which time the going price is approaching the astronomical.

    Eventually a fellow whose curiosity got the better of him comes into the clubroom and announces that he opened the tin and the anchovies were absolutely awful, if not downright rancid.

    Comes the response: “You idiot, of course they were. Those anchovies weren’t for eating. They were for buying and selling.”

  121. 121.

    NotMax

    @efgoldman“It’s too late, Diana. There’s nothing left in you that I can live with. You’re one of Howard’s humanoids. If I stay with you, I’ll be destroyed. Like Howard Beale was destroyed. Like Laureen Hobbs was destroyed. Like everything you and the institution of television touch is destroyed. You’re television incarnate, Diana: Indifferent to suffering; insensitive to joy. All of life is reduced to the common rubble of banality. War, murder, death are all the same to you as bottles of beer. And the daily business of life is a corrupt comedy. You even shatter the sensations of time and space into split seconds and instant replays. You’re madness, Diana. Virulent madness. And everything you touch dies with you.” (Network, 1976)

  126. 126.

    maximiliano furtive, formerly known as dr. bloor

    What a remarkable season. Won’t see that again in another lifetime.

  129. 129.

    Botsplainer

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    I would say that you won’t get any more enjoyment from the taste of a fancy booze than you would from a decent mid-priced one. Save the money.

    I tend to keep around Wild Turkey for swill whiskey, and Woodford Reserve Double Oaked for sipping ($52-$60 a bottle). Occasionally, I’ll order up a MacAllen 18. Once, for shits and giggles, I splurged on a shot of Pappy Van Winkle 20 – it was $25 (the Pappy 23 was running nearly $50). It was pretty damned special – never had anything like it before. It was super smooth, and had hints of everything from lavender to fennel to fruit.

  131. 131.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: Watched it with the sound down… that way, if you listen reallllll hard, you can still hear Ned Martin, or Curt Gowdy…

  134. 134.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Botsplainer: The price difference between the Macallan 12 and either the 15 or 18 just isn’t worth it for me. The 25 is just silly. If I had Romney money, I would probably buy the 18.

  135. 135.

    different-church-lady

    At a place I used to work a guy had a poster of Papi holding up his hand showing his 2004 World Series ring to the crowd.

    In 2007 I took the poster over to the color copier, make a copy of the ring, cut it out, and taped the second one to the next finger over. I waited for the guy to notice, but I don’t think he ever did.

    I’m going to have to call my contacts at that place, see if the poster is still up, and have them get me into the building so I can do ring #3.

  137. 137.

    fuckwit

    @NotMax: That’s an awesome movie. Who’d have thought it’d have ended up being used as an instruction manual?

    One of the more amazing (and pleasantly distracting) things besides the prescient script and outstanding acting, was Faye Dunaway (Diana) walking around the halls of power, barking orders and being in charge of shit, with no bra on. It was the 1970s, and I’d forgotten that bras were patriarchal oppression and were avoided at all costs by liberated women. So we men (and women) who like that sort of thing got to enjoy seeing nipples everywhere poking through clothes, and actual natural boobs outlined under clothes. Sexy.

    Not like today where women of all ages and body types wear Muppets on their chests, and you’ll never see even the hint of a nipple outside of porn or a Daily Mail celebrity gotcha shot. Apparently foam rubber is all that Victoria’s Secret sells nowadays. Who the hell thought it was sexy to have Jim Henson designing underwear? News flash from an old guy who remembers the days before that became fashionable: it’s not.

  138. 138.

    KG

    @efgoldman: I was talking more from a youth league stand point. As a parent, you buy a glove, a bat, maybe a helmet and cleats and you’re good for baseball. Football has more equipment costs, I would think.

  141. 141.

    Ash Can

    “[Baseball] breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall all alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops.”

    ― A. Bartlett Giamatti, Take Time For Paradise: Americans And Their Games

    Hat tip

  142. 142.

    different-church-lady

    Ah, Bud Selig: the only person in the park who was alive the last time the Sox won a World Series at Fenway.

  143. 143.

    Wally Ballou

    @Davis X. Machina: Ken Coleman is the Bosox announcer I remember from when I was a kid and would do the whole “flipping around the dial at night when my guys were idle” thing.

    @efgoldman: IIRC, it was Roone Arledge of ABC who was responsible for the practice of the local announcers being used in the national WS coverage being discarded. Big, big change for the worse.

  144. 144.

    Davis X. Machina

    @efgoldman: I should have mentioned Ken Coleman, too.

    Been wondering where you were.

    Texting and tweeting relatives ike a fool… My sister,brother, dad and mom (85) were all at the 6th game in ’75, and mom was at the ’48 playoff — and she’s not even the biggest fan in the family. The ’75 ticket stubs — in a safe-deposit box in Quincy — are mentioned in various wills, I know for a fact.

  145. 145.

    different-church-lady

    @efgoldman: I’m just glad they won one (or two) for her before she passed on.

    Farrell: it’s too bad managers don’t qualify for MVP.

    What do you suppose is going through Bobby Valentine’s mind right now?

  146. 146.

    Mike in NC

    As a Boston native who was dragged to Fenway Park, Boston Gardens, and many other assorted sports venues over the years, I just don’t give a rat’s ass. Enjoy however…

  148. 148.

    dr. bloor

    @different-church-lady:

    What do you suppose is going through Bobby Valentine’s mind right now?

    One of two things: (1) He’s thinking he would have won 100 and swept the Cards with this roster, or (2) He hasn’t noticed.

    Cuz, narcissism.

  149. 149.

    PsiFighter37

    Fuck the Sawx. And fuck Big Papi too…as much a steroid junkie if there ever was one – went from being a bonus benchwarmer with the Twins to ‘beloved’ Beantown juicer. Of course, everyone conveniently wrote off how he showed up on a failed steroid test….magically goes from stinking really bad to start a season a couple years back to being back in his juicing prime.

    And fuck all those assholes who couldn’t find a fucking razor and shaving cream if it hit them in the face.

    God I hate the fucking Sux.

  151. 151.

    handy

    @PsiFighter37:

    I was really hoping there’d be a way that both these teams would find a way to disqualify themselves, but alas somebody had to be the winner.

  158. 158.

    NotMax

    @fuckwit

    Faye Dunaway also makes really good egg salad.

    She was the step-mother of someone went o high school with, and she served us sandwiches once when we were playing p0ker..

  159. 159.

    pseudonymous in nc

    @dr. bloor:

    One of two things: (1) He’s thinking he would have won 100 and swept the Cards with this roster, or (2) He hasn’t noticed.

    Not 2.

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    The price difference between the Macallan 12 and either the 15 or 18 just isn’t worth it for me. The 25 is just silly.

    My bottle was private-label, so it didn’t name the distillery, only the vintage and region, but I had a tip from the people working there about its origins. Sold off at a bargain price so as not to dilute the market for the name-brand bottles.

  162. 162.

    Hawes

    Clearly, Bud Selig needs to rig it so that the Braves make the World Series (three African-American starters and an African American coach).

    For America!

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