- 10:57 PM
- 04/19/24
I can't recall a time here when special phrasing was required to draw an opinion out of you.
And I can't recall a time here when you were able to refrain from passive-aggressive swipes at people who disagree with you. You've been doing it to people throughout this thread, along with a generous larding of strawman argumentation and conveniently sloppy restatements of other people's beliefs. Let me put it to you straight: people in this thread have been talking about what they think, and you've got some inexplicable need to beef with them about it, despite the fact that NO ONE has tried to bully YOU out of your belief that Fireman Ed or Crazy Ray are an essential "part of the show". I suggest that you stop trying to promote groupthink; it's a waste of time. People hold different views than you.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:39 PM on November 28, 2012
The idea he lost some "dignity" as a fan by cultivating a persona and never missing a game makes me wonder how much dignity you think there is in sports fandom.
If you want to know what I'm thinking, maybe you could try asking "What do you think about...?" It's a lot more straightforward and more likely to get you the answer you claim to be seeking, although it may not be the one you want.
I think when you ask the question "How much dignity do you think there is in sports fandom?", you've got the stick by the wrong end entirely -- but you've got plenty of company. There are plenty of people who clearly are drawn to sporting events because of the opportunity it gives them to act like a buffoon in public, free of censure. I've seen enough of this to think that it's a basic human urge, to act like a clown from time to time. It's the "from time to time" thing that's important. How much dignity is there in sports fandom? Just as much as there is in the human condition. If you're governed by the need to play the fool in public, so that you can't just shrug and walk away from the whole thing with no drama, no histrionics, no lip-quivering declarations about how tragic it all is...you lack dignity as a human being, and sports fandom has nothing to do with it.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:37 AM on November 28, 2012
When I was a kid, I loved Crazy Ray at Cowboys games
Do you think the fact that you were a kid may have had something to do with this?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:35 AM on November 28, 2012
I was stationed close enough to NYC back in my occasional-blackout-drunk days that I cannot be certain I've never been.
Blackout drunk days? Hell, you could have had unlawful carnal knowledge with Fireman Ed himself!
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:41 PM on November 27, 2012
(and again, I don't have an opinion on Fireman Ed -- I've never knowingly been to a Jets game)
I want to hear the story behind that "knowingly".
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:00 PM on November 27, 2012
For some reason, Wikipedia articles just don't trigger my "person who really ought to know better, showing their ass in public and making me cringe in sympathetic embarrassment" reaction. Maybe it's the difference between "Yeah, I went there" and "For chrissakes I'm just trying to watch the game".
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:51 PM on November 27, 2012
They are. Especially in college football and soccer.
So who gets to decide what parts of the fan experience are "part of the show", what are ancillary, and what are annoyances that we'd rather not deal with but put up with in order to see the "show" (presumably an athletic event) that we came to see? Is "Sweet Caroline" part of the "show" at Fenway Park? How about the overpriced beer at the average NLF stadium or the parking-lot traffic jams leaving a Div I football game?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:31 PM on November 27, 2012
Yeah, put me down for a "gets old fast" too. My reaction to the whole Fireman Ed thing was, I get being a devoted fan, but come on, you're a grown man. Being a devoted fan doesn't mean losing all dignity and sense of proportion.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:29 AM on November 27, 2012
The true role of "inspiration" in sports.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:18 AM on November 27, 2012
Oh god no, not that right-wing pig-animal.
(yeah, it's better than The Donald; otoh, it's increasingly clear that Trump's euphemistally-termed "hairpiece" is just a cover for his tin-foil hat, and that he's likely to be in a psych ward before too much longer and not a threat to my favorite baseball team)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:16 AM on November 21, 2012
Yes, can we share the link? I have soccer-loving friends who would probably like to donate.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:44 PM on November 15, 2012
I'm in, and I will round up some non-spofites as well if we can find a way to work this. Good on ya, billsaysthis!
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:24 AM on November 13, 2012
Beat them at what?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:17 PM on November 04, 2012
Why do you hate games in London? It's not as if most of us get to see them live even when they're in the US. The time differential is a problem if a west coast team is involved, but watching the Pats it was just another 1 pm game for me.
(also, it's an excuse to serve chicken tikka masala at the tailgate -- the English national dish!)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:44 AM on November 02, 2012
When I read the title of this thread, I imagined a dialogue: "Okay, now YOU be the Thunder and I'LL be the Rockets!"
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:30 AM on October 29, 2012
*sniff, sniff* Mmmmm, that's the sweet sweet smell of schadenfreude. Time for chicken and beer in the clubhouse, guys!
I suppose if your team is watching it all on TV, schadenfreude is the best smell you can come up with, no?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:52 PM on October 16, 2012
AFAIK Jeter has always looked after his health with good off-season conditioning. If something was going to get him, it would either be a freak injury like the shoulder or something at the end of the season like this.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:46 PM on October 15, 2012
But the chaos of going into a spin, without the mechanical controls to get himself readily re-stabilized
He's a wingsuiter.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:35 AM on October 15, 2012
Debo270, that was excellent.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:46 AM on October 09, 2012
As a Pats fan, I remember Matt Cassel with respect for stepping in when Tom Brady blew out his knee and leading the Pats to an 11-5 season. Sure, he had a great team behind him, but still, he did a standup job. I hope he's salted his money away so that in ten or twenty years, he'll be doing ok while the losers who cheered his injury will be lucky to shovel shit for minimum wage.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:01 PM on October 08, 2012
Thou Shalt Not Editorialize In A Front Page Post.
trueblueroo, it's not clear whether you want this thread to be about the Cascadia Cup or about the national mainstream media not reporting on soccer. The cited article is about the former.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:53 AM on October 08, 2012
I say go back to two divisions, east and west. Win your division or go home, five game pennant, seven game World Serious.
And get off my lawn.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:07 PM on October 01, 2012
Mr Bismarck: my favorite part is the "Miccoliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" from the announcer.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:00 AM on October 01, 2012
2) He gets plunked in the ass.
Why would that make you happy?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:22 PM on September 27, 2012
THX-1138:
This statement hardly surprises me. In McCarthy's post game presser, even though he was righteously P.O.'ed, he said that his team shouldn't have let it come to that in the first place. It doesn't take a genius to understand what he was referring to: the close score.
Yes, I got that part. Believe it or not, I'm not utterly stupid ("This statement hardly surprises me"? Really?) and quite capable of understanding what "close score" means in the context of football. And, speaking of context, it's unfortunate that you chose to cherrypick and ignore the context of my post, in which I said:
If someone were pointing to a single blown call, even that one, and saying, "And that's why we lost the game!", I would say that that's incorrect, in a game where you stumbled around and made a lot of mistakes. But hard-fought, well-played games sometimes come down to a single play, too -- that's just how it goes, there's no "letting" about it. It's one thing to call out a team that had plenty of opportunities and blew them and wants to pin it on one bad call, but I don't think your reasoning holds in general.
Added emphasis so it won't be overlooked this time (except by an act of sheer dogged determination, perhaps).
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:57 PM on September 26, 2012
But did he make a football move?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:53 PM on September 26, 2012
As I remember, the NFL states refs aren't allowed to play fantasy football and this was going to be investigated. I hadn't heard any outcome after that, but I'm guessing if he were indeed playing fantasy football, he wouldn't be reffing any longer.
Wouldn't be reffing any longer? Why was he reffing at all? How bright do you have to be to realize that when you bring in replacements who are two or three tiers below those they're replacing, you can't take for granted that they know how to conduct themselves at this level? Wouldn't involvement in fantasy football be a rather obvious conflict of interest that was likely to happen and should have been anticipated?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:57 PM on September 26, 2012
Yes, the Pack got jobbed. But they shouldn't have let the game be in a place where it would come down to the last play and be decided by an official.
This doesn't make any sense to me. If someone were pointing to a single blown call, even that one, and saying, "And that's why we lost the game!", I would say that that's incorrect, in a game where you stumbled around and made a lot of mistakes. But hard-fought, well-played games sometimes come down to a single play, too -- that's just how it goes, there's no "letting" about it. It's one thing to call out a team that had plenty of opportunities and blew them and wants to pin it on one bad call, but I don't think your reasoning holds in general.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:33 PM on September 25, 2012
My fantasy team has won two games where I was the points underdog. I just edged a guy who has been taunting me all week. I am happy.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:01 PM on September 18, 2012
There's No I in Clemens
But there is an M and an E.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:49 AM on September 12, 2012
A bunch of people bound for the WTC left for work late.
Indeed. I have a friend who is alive today because he overslept and was late for work.
Blessings and comfort to those left behind. If you know someone who died that day, if you'd like, tell us a story about that person. Tell us a little bit about their life.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:38 AM on September 11, 2012
Dissing Collinsworth is a "political suggestion"? What, were you thinking he should run for office?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:56 PM on September 10, 2012
And yet, it is something historical that should be celebrated: not "hey, imagine that, a woman officiating at a football game, what next", but the fact that a woman was given the opportunity to do so.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:27 PM on September 10, 2012
In my opinion, there is a strong correlation between the captains of the financial services sector being allowed to run rampant with no wholesale public outcry and the willingness of sporting fandom to accept a landscape that includes obscene player contracts and outrageous stadium funding deals without a significantly measurable level of resistance.
Yes, it's called the tl;dr reaction. It's been working for a couple of centuries at least.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:49 PM on September 09, 2012
Apparently he remained conscious and alert during on-field treatment and was breathing without assistance throughout. He's in stable condition, may be paralyzed but maybe not, so here's hoping for a good outcome.
(He sounds like one intriguing guy...majoring in cell and molecular biology? Hardly your stereotypical jock)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:37 PM on September 09, 2012
Yeah, as I said in another thread (that was going in a direction predictable of every thread where the Yankees are mentioned, so I didn't bother to go back), I don't think the Yankees have everything they'd need to go deep in the playoffs.
I'd cheer to see the Orioles playing like a decent ball team once again, since I have fond memories of the AL East in the '70s.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:53 PM on September 05, 2012
A part of me actually hopes Boston all but rolls over for Baltimore and Tampa (not unlike how New York did for Tampa last year), to help make that a reality.
I'm not sure we really want to get into a discussion of the rolling-over that was done last September, because that rapidly becomes a large discussion about last September and not about this September. After all, whatever your situation late in September, ultimately you can't count on the other teams to manage their wins and losses for your benefit. The way to the playoffs is to win your games, not to count on other teams to win when it would help you and lose when it would help you. Whatever the mathematical drama of the last few days of the regular season, the teams that didn't make the playoffs are the ones that failed to win their games, as always.
I don't like New York's chances much, and haven't since Mo blew out his knee. They've done much better than I would have expected given their injuries, but I can't see it holding up well enough to take them deep in the playoffs.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:37 AM on September 04, 2012
Seems like high school football is alive and well to me.
For some version of "alive", anyway. I wonder how the textbook budget is doing.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:47 PM on August 30, 2012
My gut take on Armstrong's announcement is that it must mean he's guilty. I presumed he was innocent prior to this. It just doesn't look good from a PR standpoint for him to give up.
But you're not really an "extremely casual fan". You've been here for many discussions in which the highly flawed and agenda-driven nature of USADA/WADA's so-called "process" has been discussed. And you still credit their allegations, without question? Because that's what your statement implies.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 08:57 AM on August 25, 2012
2) USADA needs a Pete Rose to show that they fucking mean it.
Meaning they mean a single case of someone who's proven guilty of a major violation, such that he should be barred for life? Claptrap. Whatever its hypothetically benevolent origins, USADA's single mission nowadays is to perpetuate its own existence and extend its own power by demonstrating its own usefulness, and it demonstrates its own usefulness through rounding up a neverending parade of "violators" to pillory based on "trends" and hearsay. And then, of course, cry crocodile tears over the "heartbreaking example" which proves how necessary WADA and its spawn are. What a great big steaming load of crap. Insofar as they ever had a legitimate purpose, they've long since departed from the integrity that surely has to be the most essential feature of any such regulatory authority.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:22 PM on August 24, 2012
Baby steps. I'm not saying they should be lionized or have paeans written in their honor, but you gotta start somewhere, right?
Well, yes, and women's rights has started (and proceeded) in all kinds of places apart from Augusta National. I count myself among those who consider Augusta's "no girls allowed" policy childish and contemptible, but also felt that it wasn't a very useful battle to fight -- which is not to say that I'm criticizing or disagreeing with those who did choose to fight it, just that it's not where my own priorities would lie. Too little to gain, you know? So a few token women get admitted to a club that is a bastion of privilege, but also largely irrelevant to actual power in the world today. It won't change the world any more than keeping them out did. In a time when it's becoming horribly obvious in the USA just how tenuous are some much more fundamental rights for women, this is not IMO particular cause for rejoicing.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:07 PM on August 21, 2012
No human being could possibly be as stupid as Skip Bayless comes across as. His shtick has got to be all an act to garner attention and approved by his employer.
Or maybe he's just a really bad, particularly limp RAHOWA poster boy?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:01 PM on August 21, 2012
Indeed. I don't know anything about Darla Moore, but Condi Rice is not exactly what you'd call a boat-rocker.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:49 PM on August 21, 2012
Fair enough, yerfatma. It just seems to me that there was a real sudden shift in how (and to whom) the team was being marketed. The irony is that people go to the ballpark today believing that they're getting some old-timey traditional experience, and they have no idea how radically it's changed since the early-mid '90s, say.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:51 PM on August 16, 2012
Can we stop with the "Pink Hats" crap? It's the same as calling people "hipsters": the term is defined by what it is not. In this case, a Pink Hat is anyone who you don't like, anyone who wasn't around before the band got famous, etc.
I dunno, yerfatma. The term may be on the verge of overdone, but what other label would you propose for the shift in the fan base and everything that went into it? Personally, I think that's at the heart of the problems: the perceptible shift towards promoting a Red Sox game as a spectacle, as a Thing To Do and a place to be seen, rather than a baseball game. Now, all over Boston, you've got bars with the Red Sox on dozens of big screens...and the sound is turned off and all you can hear is the bar's selection of bad music. People "come in to watch the game" and then do anything but, no one's paying any attention to the game, they're just out for a night of drinking and the ball game is just window dressing. And it looks like the same thing inside the ballpark: people are there for the Fenway Park Experience(tm), and afterwards most of them won't be able to tell you what happened on the field, but they posted a vid on youtube of them and their friends singing "Sweet Caroline". Of course there are still avid fans who care deeply about the game, but they're a drop of ink in a gallon of water, and they're clearly not the ownership's priority. In marketing terms I guess it's smart, because you appeal to a broader potential fan base, and you sure sell a lot of logo gear (in, um, different colors). But when the focus is on the spectacle and the social occasion rather than the ball game, I think the ultimate outcome is inevitable: baseball, as such, is deprioritized...with predictable results.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:04 AM on August 16, 2012
I dunno, jjzucal. Last September, the Globe staff were like kids with a Willy Wonka golden ticket and no adult supervision. This season, it seems to me, they've basically been pigging out at the same table since April. They seem to be having the time of their lives and show no signs of getting bored with it, but I get the sense that everyone else has lost all interest in paying attention to them, so where's their audience?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:14 PM on August 14, 2012
I blame the pink hats.
(no, seriously, I do)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 09:12 PM on August 14, 2012
So, what product is Tebow selling there?
(also, ya know, really really looking forward to those division games this fall)
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:40 PM on August 14, 2012
Man, Bode Miller didn't do half that and people are still tut-tutting at him. Conclusion: Americans are a bunch of pantywaists.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:13 AM on August 14, 2012
"Looks like a man" is an interesting observation. A transgendered woman once told me that when we look at a person and try (consciously or unconsciously) to determine their gender, it takes five "female" cues to overcome a single "male" cue. In other words, there's something in us, nature or nurture (I tend to think the latter, but whatever) that insists that male is the norm. When it takes five "female" cues (long hair, check; short stature, check; high voice, check; carrying a purse, check; wearing certain colors, check) to overcome one "male" cue, it's pretty easy to see where this "looks like a man" stuff comes up over and over and over and over again where female athletes are concerned. Has muscles! Not wearing makeup! Athletic! Damn, we now need fifteen female cues OR WE'RE GOING TO THINK SHE LOOKS LIKE A MAN!
tl;dr: this is about the stupidest shit ever, and most people do it all the time, and are completely unaware that they're doing it, and the only way it will ever go away is if people just pull their heads out of their asses.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:07 AM on August 14, 2012
I thought of him as America's goodwill ambassador of tennis.
I've no information otherwise, but why did you think of him this way?
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:26 AM on August 10, 2012
I thought I had read about Garrett Reid's addiction problem here maybe a couple of years ago, but maybe it was somewhere else. What rcade said. I hope that this helps people develop a more nuanced understanding about addiction, and the limitations of what loved ones can do to help an addict, no matter how willing and determined they are.
The simplistic beliefs:
- There's always something you can do to fix it. - If an addict doesn't recover, it's because they don't want to. - If an addict really loves those around them, they will just get over it.
The painful truth:
- You can't fix other people. - Someone can want desperately to get better and still be unable to heal. - Someone can want desperately to get better and still be unable to accept help. - Help and healing can only come to someone who is ready to accept them. - Readiness to accept help and healing is not a matter of choice. - Inability to turn your life around is not a matter of will. Failure to turn your life around may be, but that's another matter. - An addict can love others deeply, and yet be unable to change.
The answer to the inevitable "Okay, so, what do you do???" question is left as an exercise for the student.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 10:00 AM on August 07, 2012
Should he discover beach volleyball or women's gymnastics, he very well might become apoplectic.
Nah, I doubt it. Somehow the sight of naked female skin seems to effectively blind Mr. Brown (and many other men) to the unsightly view of female athleticism. Now, if the female judoka just wore skimpier gis...
posted by lil_brown_bat at 02:58 PM on August 05, 2012
Summary: every four years the Olympics come around, and media assign their staff to speak knowledgeably on many subjects about which they know nothing -- with predictable results. Olympic judo is a competitive sport, yet he's surprised that Olympic competitors are trying to win. He equated what he saw in the match with watching a couple of drunks whale on each other outside a bar, which tells me that he's clueless about a sport form of a martial art such as judo (he'd probably be shocked also if he bothered to really watch a judo or boxing match between two men). He's sexist, all right, but that's not the end of his idiocy.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 12:32 PM on August 05, 2012
Aw, man. Wojdan Shaherkani is just full of heart.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 11:41 AM on August 03, 2012
As for the lack of acknowledgement of the Munich terrorist attack 40 years ago, I don't seem to remember an acknowledgement of the Munich terrorist attack at the Barcelona Olympics (20 years after the attack). I'm not sure why there had to be some sort of tribute at these Olympics.
People have been trying to make it happen since 1976. The fact that there's now two and a half decades of disgraceful failure isn't a reason not to try to make it happen in London. It's not as if they can go back and retroactively create a tribute in Montreal.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 01:07 PM on August 02, 2012
The hard thing for me is that it appears that nearly all American fan's opinions are inconsistent with respect to athletes trying to find every competitive edge to win.
Perhaps because some of us don't respect that.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 07:15 AM on August 02, 2012
I have no idea whether this performance was chemically-aided, but isn't it possible the sheer weight of numbers they can bring to the table might result in amazing athletes?
Clearly the numbers are a factor in their favor, but they're also doing things very differently than anyone else (or at least, differently than we do in the west). As to whether it's a good thing or a bad thing, that depends on what your goal is.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:17 PM on July 31, 2012
Rule #1 of anonymous sex: if you want to get it, you don't talk about it.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 04:11 PM on July 31, 2012
Jets Fan Fireman Ed Hanging Up His Helmet
P.s. It makes me sullen and resentful when people confuse my subtle mockery with passive-aggressive behavior. It's like my dad always said, "shut up son and bring me another beer."
I think you have to have a certain relationship with people in order for them to see that intention and be okay with it.