Haven't written about sports before, even though I'm a big Yankees (and now Mariners), Jazz, MLB and NBA fan. I'm excited about Beckham coming to America and hopefully putting soccer on the map (Kevin Garnett in the crowd at the Galaxy game? The tide has turned...).
But now the big three sports are each facing major (?) conspiracies/embarrasments: First there's MLB with the whole steroids/Barry Bonds about to break Hank Aaron's record thinnest of all thin ice scenarios, the ugly, scary, disgusting Michael Vick running a dogfighting ring in Virginia, and now the NBA has the scandal to top every US sporting scandal since the Black Sox in 1919.
Meanwhile, Paris Hilton is in an out of jail, Lindsay Lohan is constantly 10 seconds away from becoming a River Phoenix, summer TV is horrible, and the Yanks are 10 games out of first place behind the Red Sox. Yes the sky is falling. The Second Coming must be right around the corner.
Will this change how I feel about NBA games? You bet! My interest has cooled considerably over the last couple of years anyway, but was on its way back up after the Jazz's inspiring run into the Western Conf finals last year. But now...you just can't help but wonder how many of those games Donaghy officiated for YOUR team were not rightly won by them. Let's not even start to talk about the Spurs/Suns (or getting LeBron into the finals for that matter)...
I just wish that we could escape all the noise. I wish the shelf life for these stories was 3 days: 1 day for news to break, 1 to analyze, 1 to learn from it and MOVE ON. Instead we'll be hearing about these things ad nauseum for the next year, with every talking head and every blogger and every news reporter and every newspaper writer having to get his/her two cents in.
I think I'm going to start watching "Planet Earth." We're already totally enthralled with "Man Vs Wild." Time to get back to REALity.
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
The Sky is Falling
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5 comments:
g o l f
b-o-r-i-n-g.
Sorry, that's kindof a snarky comment. Let me start over. I too am seriously concerned with not only the news, but the news broadcasters. As far as Man vs. Wild, I too have enjoyed that show, but sadly, I read today that Bear Grylls has spent some of his nights in hotel rooms instead of the wilderness (link to one of many reports). However, I do love a like minded show on Discovery Science, Survivorman and would highly recommend it. Les Stroud is unbelievable, and carries around his own cameras, and is stranded in each location for 7 days. No crew around him. And he doesn't just jump into quicksand to "show you how to get out". He shows you how to avoid quicksand...
And as to my comment on golf, I feel it is the purest test of honesty and integrity that exists in sports. There are rules officials, but there aren't golfers trying to get out of fouls or clotheslining fellow competitors when they think they can get away with it. Respect for the rules of golf is what makes it what it is. Thinking of this brings to mind a piece of golf history.
Bobby Jones was competing in the US Open in the early 1900's. He stood over the ball to make a shot, and caused it to move a little bit (much like a scene from The Legend of Bagger Vance). Nobody saw it happen. Jones called the rules official over and assessed himself a one stroke penalty. That in and of itself is a testament to golf. But what is even more enlightening was his response for the praise he received for his act of honesty. He said, "You may as well praise a man for not robbing a bank." Integrity, man.
And for all those who feel that they would enjoy watching golf as much as watching paint dry: I've been there too. But think about this, these are 4 day tournaments. Each day, each golfer is out there for about 5 hours. That's a 20 hour game. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and half of Sunday you can forget. But there is nothing like the tension on the back nine on Sunday. Especially in a major. DVR it sometime and watch it. That's sport.
yeah even though I haven't read the Bear Grylls reports, I do get the feeling after seeing 5-6 episodes that alot of the show is staged. But every time I watch it (and one of the beauties of the show is you can get away with 10-15 mins at a time) dude goes WAY farther than I would want to and I shake my head thinking, "Man he's crazy and I'm glad that's not my job."
The good thing is the year in Music has been incredible. And most musicians are either too busy or not big enough stars or not good looking enough (or who knows) that the media leaves them alone so we don't get to know them TOO well, like everyone else. So that air of mystery is retained and we can just ENJOY THE MUSIC.
Summer music = good.
Summer TV = not so much.
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