Anti-social

I'm back to this blog, partially because I am making a conscious effort to change the way I consume and participate in social media, specifically Facebook and Twitter. The problem, especially on FB, is that more often than not, the content annoys me, bums me out, or in some way makes me less happy than before I read it, and that certainly isn't the point. I have several issues with it, ranging from minor annoyances to major things that bother me, and many of them are things that I have done myself. But the biggest problem is that, all too often, social media serves simply as a platform for someone to cyber-scream "THIS IS WHAT I THINK OR AGREE WITH AND IT IS ABSOLUTELY CORRECT."

 That pisses me off.

I fully realized this during two recent "events" (I use that term loosely) that were beaten to death over social media: the Duck Dynasty guy situation, and the knee-jerk reactions to Seattle Seahawks cornerback Richard Sherman and his vitriolic post game "interview" with Erin Andrews after the NFC Championship game. What struck me as interesting in both cases, and ultimately problematic, is that there is no right or wrong view of either side of either issue, and yet everyone who strongly voiced an opinion ended up sounding like an ass. Let's cover the Duck Dynasty guy first. Were his comments ignorant, hateful, and stupid? Yup. Is he allowed to make those kind of comments? Of course he is. His supporters immediately and incorrectly invoked The First Amendment, which has absolutely nothing to do with his situation, since the government was not involved to any degree. Did the network have the right to suspend him? Of course they did. He made them look bad, and made them associated with a hateful bigot. Now, what can be debated is whether the brief sanctions were given only to generate publicity in hopes of juicing the ratings when he ultimately and inevitably returned to the airwaves, although thankfully that didn't happen.

My issue is that there was no wiggle room in anyone's stance. Everyone yelling and screaming on both sides felt they were ABSOLUTELY RIGHT and that there was no gray area, no possible other position. And there's tons of that kind of thing on Facebook and Twitter now. Much of it is entirely pointless. Nobody is going to change their religious, political, or sports team affiliations based on somebody else's posts. After the 2012 election I pledged to myself to just not post anything political anymore, because it is pointless. Most social media political posts are the internet equivalent of waving something around and shouting about it because you agree with it. Which doesn't do any good for anybody, other than generating completely hollow social media "likes" or "favorites." 

Richard Sherman's behavior was the most recent example of this kind of thing. Personally, I thought he was practically foaming at the mouth and came off like a dangerous person. I was legitimately fearful for Erin Andrews' safety as she tried to talk to him. His defenders immediately and vociferously jumped to his side, discussing how he was "in the heat of the moment" and how he must be smarter than most people because he was a communications major at Stanford. But doesn't this mean that he should have been smart enough to realize exactly how poorly he would be viewed by millions of people? Predictably, people far on the other side immediately resorted to racially-charged name calling and insults. I didn't like his act. I thought he came off like a pompous jerk. I'm also fairly certain that that was absolutely his intention. He is a pompous jerk, and he is building that brand for himself. His team is heading to the Super Bowl, and literally the only player on his squad that anyone seems to be talking about now is him. And that is exactly what he wanted. But nobody is discussing that, they are just fighting over whether what he did was acceptable or not.

So that's where I stand. I'm not talking or posting about politics or religion, and I'm even going to cut back on posting about sports, because all I'm doing is flag-waving for my teams. Sometimes I won't be able to help it, or I just won't care (WORLD CHAMPIONS!). But I'm going to try to get back to using social media for what it does best: sharing pictures and updates about people's kids, funny photos and videos of animals, and pretty Instagram shots of food.

Podcast with Junior

I'm shocked how many people actually listened to the first podcast. Sincerely, I thought maybe half a dozen people would check it out, and it did much better than that, so I was more than happy to record another one. This time I talk to Chris "Junior" Rebich, who gives us more wedding lowdown (including the connection between Dumb and Dumber and what he will be wearing at the wedding), discussion of Shaw B's wick and fire levels, as well as his thoughts on the Rockies pursuit of a postseason berth and the troubling start to the CU football season.

Click here to listen or download it now!

Poor little A-Rod is tired

Slumping A-Rod to be sidelined two days with fatigue

Honestly.

That headline is pretty much the story. The guy's season in the majors started on May 8. So in less than six weeks of playing baseball, A-Rod has become so tired that the Yankees need to sit him down for not just one, but two ballgames.

Well, he did have surgery, so you may ask yourself, Is he sore? "No, he's not sore," said Yankee manager Joe Girardi from his spot on the hot seat.

Is he injured? Nope. He has played every game since his return.

Does he just suck now? A ha! We might be on to something. He is hitting .145 in June. He's 0 for his last 15. And for the season, he is batting a robust .212. This is probably as good a time as any to mention that his salary this year is $32 million, which doesn't include the $1 million portion of his signing bonus he received this year. I would calculate what that is going to cost on a per game basis, but that's tough to do since I don't know how often he will be too tired to go out and play nine innings of baseball.

The moral of all this? If you're a major leaguer that does 'roids, you deserve every single bad thing that happens to you.

A moron, and also a liar, apparently

No, I'm not talking about A-Rod again, although that headline certainly applies to him as well. I'm talking about one of my most loathed broadcasters of all time, the inimitable Joe Morgan. Anyone who knows me understands all too well my hatred for Simple Joe. Why do I despise him so? I could list many reasons, but two qualities stand out at the top: his endless and utterly predictable self-aggrandizing chestnuts, and his reliance on providing "analysis" so mundane that anyone with any remaining gray matter was already aware of what he was talking about, or so blatantly wrong that it is incomprehensible how he ever got handed a microphone in the first place.

On the first point, feel free to play my version of the Joe Morgan Drinking game next time you catch him in the booth. Take one swig for "I" or "me," two for any mention of a former teammate or opponent, and chug it all for a reference to Cincinnati or the Big Red Machine. Have an alcohol poison control center on speed dial if you actually attempt this. As for his riveting "color commentary," I don't even know where to begin. He is such a notoriously insipid announcer that there was even a website devoted to him which, alas, has closed. They dutifully tracked his endless Joe-isms. Here is a choice example of Morgan being Morgan. Bear in mind, this was actually said by a man being paid to analyze baseball at the highest level:

* On the Red Sox (vs. the Rays) in the 2008 ALCS: "They cannot beat them by outscoring them." Actually, that's the only way any team can beat any other team, Joe.

Anyway, I could cherry pick bad Morgan quotes all day. But today we have reached a new low, even for him. It's the perfect storm of Joe Morgan. Self-important reference? Check. Story about his glory days? Check. Blatantly false to absurd degrees? Check!

It Wasn't So, Joe!

I despise Randy Johnson

Rat-faced, mullet wearing jerk Randy Johnson recently won his 300th game, which means now is as good a time as any to explain why, to paraphrase Newman, I despise Randy Johnson.

It was spring of 1992 in Arizona and some friends and I had just seen him pitch in a spring training game. He was no star then. He hadn't even won 50 games in the bigs, and his only claim to fame was that he was the tallest pitcher ever to take the hill. The game was unremarkable--I have no recollection of how he did or whether the Mariners even won or lost the game. But I had a scorecard or program from the game with me when we went to grab a post-game burger at Flakey Jake's in Tempe. I spotted Randy at a nearby table and, as a big baseball fan, I thought it would be cool to get him to autograph something from the game on the same day I saw him pitch. I didn't want to bother him, so I waited patiently by the door until he was done eating. At the door, I politely said that I had watched him play and I wondered if he would sign my program. "God, you guys never leave us alone," he spat.

What a dick.