At least for this post. Okay. I'm done with this taking over stuff.
73 thoughts on “I’m Taking Over!”
I saw there will be a new Black Keys album out December 6. That's something I will probably end up acquiring.
I'm about to listen to Primus's first new one in twelve years. Even at their best it took a few listens, so I'm a little intimidated.
I like some Primus in small doses. Never had the urge to listen to an entire Primus album.
Yeah. Although I've always been a casual fan of theirs, I never go through Primus obsession phases like I do with a lot of my favorite bands. Too much Primus can be a little...sludgy and same-y.
Finishing it now. I have to say, it might be my favorite of theirs. It's lively and fun throughout.
I didn't do a soccer post yesterday because I was moving back to Mom & Dad's, as well as I was working on my laptop and it was an international break. So if you're jonesing for soccer, tune into ESPN2 today.
Also, ESPN3.com is airing all (or almost all) the other Euro 2012 qualifiers at Noon.
Got tickets to the Sporting KC-NY Red Bulls game this Saturday. It will be my first professional soccer game, I'm pretty excited. Should be a good one too, what with the playoff implications and everything.
Oh, have a good time. I've been to a Fire game at Soldier Field and one at Toyota Park. The SF game was before a Real Madrid-Chivas Guadalajara game, so most people were there for that. The TP game was against Houston in the rain. Both were a great time. That new stadium down in KC looks beautiful, so that should be nice.
It's 2-0 to Ze Germans at the half.
The current team out there for Die Mannschaft really shows the "New Germany" - Sami Khedira (German-born of Tunisian father & German Mother), Mesut Özil (3rd gen Turkish-German), and Mario Gomez (German-born, Spanish Father & German mother)
I know a bunch of citizens collect Homer Hankies, and I'm not against that, but this Reusse column hit home for me, especially this part:
This wonderful game, where you should be able to sit and study the collisions of these great sciences, pitching and hitting, and then react spontaneously to the result of each confrontation ... that's gone. To go to a playoff game is to stand and wave a rag every time a home batter reaches base, or even gets to a three-ball count, or a pitcher gets to two strikes or two outs, whichever comes first. And that's for the first four, five innings ... after that, it's standing and waving and hollering (very often for no reason), simply because that is what this crowd saw the fans doing in the opponents' stadium. Baseball is a game to be studied, admired for long moments in conversational tones. It should not be a game that is screamed at incessantly, or a game to have rags waved at it for hours on end.
It may be because I lived in D.C. in 1987 but I never got the whole homer hankie thing and am proud to say that although I've gone to at least 12 playoff games and all 4 of the 1991 World Series games, I have never waved a homer hankie at a Twins game. Now Get Off My Lawn!!
I call bullsh!t on the last line of Reusse's article. Clearly, the homer hanky isn't to blame for the demise of baseball. Playoff ticket lotteries and exorbitant prices keep 'true' fans out of the ballpark. Besides, post season baseball is inherently different than the regular season because every pitch, every hit, every run could be the difference between winning and losing. Baseball is a contemplative game over the course of the regular season, but during the playoffs there is more weight placed on individual performances, and emotional responses take the place of rational thinking.
Bingo. Calling fans out on the carpet for being most excited for the most meaningful games is nonsense at best. Furthermore, I've seen a handful of games from decades ago, and even the tie-wearing audiences got rowdy if the game meant enough.
The times haven't changed, Reusse has.
Furthermore, if it keeps people off of their cell phones and away from anything resembling the wave, I can't see how it's a bad thing.
I like the "game to be studied" line (being at the Metrodome on Sunday hit home just how different baseball and football are as spectator sports), but I just can't think of involved audience participation (ie, things that are seperate from "I'm bored and I'm at the game, ie "the wave") as a bad thing.
Homer Hankies pwn thunderstix
audience participation at ballgames for the most part is a waste. "Why are we standing and shouting loudly right now?" "Because the tying run is up to bat!" "Yeah, but it's a 3-3 game in the 4th, the bases are empty, and the batter is Nick Punto."
I can tell your story is made up, because no Twins fan in existence other than my father-in-law would cheer for a Punto at bat.
Somehow, it fits that the score could be 3-3 with Nick Punto at bat and he'd be considered the tying run.
If the announcers called him the "potential go-ahead run" in that situation, they had better be snickering.
Zing!
replies posted during work meetings can only end up half-bakef
I am in awe. Even I don't post during meetings. 🙂
I see what Pat is getting at, but I think he's got the causation all wrong, and is quite in danger of making the Twins out to be a lot more influential than they really are. If anything, I would say that years of being told--by members of the media such as Mr. Reusse no less--that hometown fans have a huge influence on the game, we all think that we're more important than we really are in the outcome of the game. We know we can't go out there and throw a pitch or hit the ball, but when you're at the stadium, you figure if you make noise with your neighbors, maybe you can have some positive impact on the field. To add to this, many commentators on television have next to nothing to add in terms of thoughtful analysis, so their commentary often comes down to "it's loud in here and hard to concentrate," etc., which leads to the perception that the fans help decide the game, which perpetuates the behavior. In that regard, if he wants to throw stones, I think the Metrodome (and its reputation for being a loud place) would be as much to blame as anything, and the standing and yelling would happen regardless of whether anyone was waving something in the air.
To his main point about whether fans are over-doing the standing and yelling, etc., I am somewhat sympathetic though I wouldn't go as far as Reusse. In the past, I've never really liked standing for every hitter that gets two strikes in the ninth. (Or even two strikes with two outs in the ninth.) At least inasmuch as it seems obligatory to stand in such situations and sometimes I don't really feel the out coming. I don't know if it's superstition or what, but when I'm at a baseball game, I generally prefer to be reactive rather than proactive. That's more a matter of preference than anything, though.
To the point of whether the cheering has lost its spontaneity, that's on the teams and their scoreboard operators as much as anything. We're constantly prompted on when we should "get loud," and teams clearly want fans to make noise in certain situations and they aren't afraid to tell us when they want it. I could do without the scoreboard-prompted cheering, personally. I could also do without a lot of the cheering prompts from the organ, or the constant sound-bites between pitches baiting the crowd into cheering along.
We're constantly prompted on when we should "get loud," and teams clearly want fans to make noise in certain situations and they aren't afraid to tell us when they want it. I could do without the scoreboard-prompted cheering, personally. I could also do without a lot of the cheering prompts from the organ, or the constant sound-bites between pitches baiting the crowd into cheering along.
This. The NBA is possibly the worst offender. Ear-bleed inducing sound effects/music piped in constantly in an enclosed space. I want to be entertained, to be sure. But I want to be entertained by the action on the floor, not all the artifice.
Many fans certainly want to be "involved" -- and have an overblown sense of their importance to the action on the field/court. But there are many ways to enjoy a game. I'm not bothered by the Wave, or beach balls, or buxom wenches playing the exhibitionist (well, ok, that depends on whether I'm with my family or not). We go to games to be entertained. I can still enjoy the game action without doing the Wave.
I AM bothered by loud, obnoxious drunks, people who start fights, and franchise operators who insist on taking too much focus away from the actual game with their desperate attempts to "entertain" me.
The Diamondbacks were a huge offender of the "make some noise" sin. The screens beg for it almost every half-inning and the event staff runs out to the stands to hold up big signs that say NOISE on them near the end of the game.
I love that people get ridiculously into the game. I dislike anything that detracts focus on the game, and I guess beach balls would be near the top of that list. If you're so bored by baseball that you need to bring a beach ball to stay entertained, why did you buy a ticket? That's just weird to me.
Mean drunks are the worst. It's bad that they're ruining my night, and worse that they're ruining the experience for my kids. Perhaps worst of all, they're so soused that they aren't even going to remember the game. Dude, you could have blacked out anywhere, and it wouldn't have cost you a baseball ticket and exorbitant prices for America's worst beers.
If you're so bored by baseball that you need to bring a beach ball to stay entertained, why did you buy a ticket? That's just weird to me.
All we needed was for FSN to start talking about you on its broadcast and you could have been the next Steve Bartman.
So, you have never been to a Vikings game, eh?
Never.
I've been to a Redskins game, a couple Chargers games, a couple Bears games, and a couple 49ers games. The most recent experience, at a 49ers game, was quite fun, which may have had something to do with the premo seats (6th row or thereabouts, which seems to have put me sufficiently below the eardrum-splitting noise level seats). My prior experience at a 49ers game was fun as well.
Actually, now that I think about it, I've never really experienced drunk a-holes ruining my time at an NFL game, and since all the games were outdoors, the noise levels weren't too horrible.
My NBA experiences (old Chicago Stadium, new Chicago Stadium, Arco) varied from "awesome" (both Chicago games, during the MJ period) to "less awesome" (Kings game, remarkable for great seats and the halftime retirement of C-Webb's jersey; but the noise level was horrible and I had a splitting headache afterwards).
franchise operators who insist on taking too much focus away from the actual game with their desperate attempts to "entertain" me
This can be a delicate line, I think. What do you make of minor league baseball? There seem to be plenty of sideshows there, generally in good fun. I guess I've made peace with some of the sideshows, but really don't care for the "MAKE NOISE, JUST YELL OR SOMETHING, DON'T BE QUIET THIS ISNT A LIBRARY" scoreboard prompts. If you want the fans to cheer, at least maybe be more creative than telling us to make noise, or indicate otherwise that this is a critical juncture in the game.
You raise a good point, ubes. I have been entertained by the River Cats, but mostly by the baseball and the beautiful stadium. They haven't had to Veeck-wreck the baseball to entertain the crowds in Sactown.
That said, I've always been amused by they ballpigs in St. Paul. I think the Veeck family (and other success stories in minor league baseball/independent baseball) have a lot of marketing savvy and guts. More power to 'em.
I'm more bothered by the "major league" franchises that seem determined to distract you from the quality of the competition.
Fair enough. If anything, I think some major league sports could probably stand to inject a bit more light-hearted fun into their mix instead of the usual message that major league sports are Serious Business, but I do agree that the sideshows are more appropriate at minor league events.
I actually don't mind some of the side shows so much as where we started, with the excessive noise and scoreboard demands for screaming. If I wanted to go to a heavy metal concert (or whatever "music" they happen to be shoving down my earholes), I'd be cheaptoy go to a heavy metal concert.
I'm mostly GOMLing here about noise. Bring it down a few notches, and I will enjoy the frisbee dogs, stiltwalkers, big-headed mascots and whatever in-between stints of actual athletic competition on the field.
The NBA wipes out the first two weeks of the regular season. There's a "significant gulf on virtually all issues," sayeth Stern.
Methinks that the doldrums of a bad recession is not the time to be playing chicken over how to divide $3.8 billion.
Yeah, nobody's coming out of this looking well. The players are really getting fleeced by the owners, but the owners correctly assume that the fans will call the players greedy, because they don't understand where the players expect the money to come from, and they have the player's faces to focus their rage on. Old fat cats in private boxes just don't catch the eye of many fans.
Given the state of America right now, a lost season could really piss off the NBA's fans more than usual. All sides must know this. Baseball had steroids to recover, but I'm guessing the NBA noticed how bad MLB's numbers were in 1995.
As someone with a slight interest in basketball, and a huge interest in seeing the Wolves this year, I'm pretty bummed about this. It does not feel like the owners are negotiating in good faith, and it seems like Stern is doing his best to back them with an iron fist. Pretty disappointing.
Stern's legacy is on the line. He's done some good stuff for the league, and some bad stuff. I'm sure the owners have exerted significant pressure on him to break the players, but if this lasts, say, 30 or 40 games, Stern is the loser.
Yeah...Stern is saying a lot of the right things through the media, but he does seem to be following the big money here. It's disappointing, but it's just business, I suppose. The whole thing is gross, but this is the sports world.
The players should absolutely start defecting to Europe en masse. That's how they win this thing. If guys are getting checks over there, the league has lost their leverage. Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Nowitzki, et al. over playing in Europe would be a huge deal. How bad would ownership look? The players could say, all we want to do is play ball. The owners don't want us, so we're over here, playing until the owners are ready to turn the lights on.
I think they've hesitated because they were optimistic, but with a couple of stars already planning to play there, it's going to get easier for others to follow. The last thing the NBA wants is for America not to look like the place to play basketball.
If the players are making money without the NBA, exactly what leverage do the owners have? There's some injury risk, of course, but when paychecks flow in, the owners can sit there with their empty stadia and wonder what happened.
Yeah, I'm definitely agreeing with you. I hope this happens, if that's what it takes.
While I agree with you in spirit, nearly all of the top Euro leagues impose a limit of two Americans per team. That's gonna leave a lot of NBAer's on the outside looking in.
It's also generally not straightforward to get a work permit in Europe, which could make it difficult.
Is there anything more invigorating than convincing a cable/internet service provider to give you cheaper service by threatening to leave?
Doing the same thing to a phone company?
It was a phone company. I knew I needed another slash line in there.
In that case, no.. there is nothing more invigorating.
I've been there! Midwest Wireless charged me an exorbitant (to me, at the time) sum for overages one month back in 2000, and after I finally paid it, I kept getting mail saying it needed to be paid. I made countless calls saying it had been paid, and I had proof via my bank statements that the exact amount was paid in full, in addition to my regular bills. I kept getting "Yeah, right" responses, and they referred me to a collection agency, that started demanding money and talking to me like I just didn't feel like paying the bill. Since it had gotten to the point where I was flirting with jail time, I paid it.
Then, I went to Midwest Wireless. I provided documentation of both payments, I had names and dates of the people who harassed me. I made some pretty bold threats, and said if it went to court I was the type of guy who could talk circles around them and the fact that they'd destroyed my credit rating would be enough to get them in big trouble.
You don't even want to know how much they took care of me after that.
Phone companies are bad with that sort of thing. We didn't get quite that far in the "you din't pay your bill/yes we certainly did" fight, but...
We did have a long struggle with our cell service provider over a billion different things that overzealous sales people had promised or assured us, then another long struggle with them over a bunch of various things that their retentions department had promised or assured us. Finally, we were just about ready to be done with it forever, we called them, and before we even mentioned anything, they mentioned that they had gone over our records and saw that because of where I worked, I was eligible for a flat, permanent discount that superceded everything else, anyway.
We had mentioned numerous times where I work, because we knew there was some level of discount. They had simply told us before that it didn't apply.
When I got my Droid over the summer, I discovered that I was eligible for a state employee discount on my entire Verizon bill (which was then in the Mrs's name). We did the work right then and there to get the account switched to my name so that I could take the discount. The COMPANY f-ed up the paperwork, then stuck their middle finger up at me when I said "what's the dealieou? Where's my discount?" and said I had to start all over from scratch with the paperwork, even though THEY screwed up with the data entry.
long story short, I STILL haven't gotten the account switched to my name. F-ers.
Foreigners?
Sour Cream's first day of all-day preschool started three hours ago, and ended an hour ago when she had to be picked up with a 101.7 temperature. She's devastated that she had to leave. Poor kid...there goes her perfect attendance record.
Just think, only several thousand more days, and they could've written about her in the local paper!
Missed it by that much. Well, there's always the opposite record. Maybe she'll break that.
A single plate appearance is enough to continue a consecutive games streak, so I figure as long as she survives at least an hour tomorrow, the streak lives on.
She did draw a picture of herself and me before she came home, so yeah, man. I'll count it.
Sweet. A parent who wants to send a kid back to school with a fever! Every teacher will thank you, spoons. 😉
Ha. Don't worry...if she's sick tomorrow I'll be glad to keep her home.
It came out of nowhere. She was her usual happy, singing self this morning on the way to school, and two hours later she was death warmed over. It's very food poisoning-y, except she hasn't thrown up or anything.
It doesn't take long with kids that age. The good news, hopefully, is that in my experience if it comes on that fast it tends to go away pretty fast as well.
That' always been the case with Skim, definitely. Sour Cream hasn't gotten sick all that often, so this is a little new to her. She got some shots a few days ago so this could be a reaction to them.
Okay, so now I'm so sick I can barely stand. That was fast. Ugh.
check out his chest plate on the costume. Six-pack!!!
Damn, I love the weirdness of Seattle.
The police took his costume, eh? That seems like sort of a dick move, as well as ineffective. It wasn't a weapon. What they're trying to take from him is the crazy, and stealing his costume isn't going to get that done.
At the same time, general manager Kenny Williams revealed that Ventura wasn't the only surprise name on his wish list. He also considered, albeit briefly, making Paul Konerko a player-manager.
What a bizarre thing to even discuss publicly. Sounds like he just wants to pump up Konerko's ego or something, certainly that's not a realistic thought these days.
I loved this, too:
"Obviously you look at your team and think, 'I'd love to have a Rickey Henderson at the top,' and you have all those things," Ventura said. "Look at the roster, it might have to adjust. It might have to be different. We don't know at this point.
I'm not sure it's a good sign when a manager's first thought is that he would prefer to have a historically great player playing for him. I wonder what his post-game pressers will be like. "Well, obviously, tonight I was hoping to have Mariano Rivera close for us, but I looked in the bullpen and Jesse Crain was the best we could do. So, I had to adjust, I had to do things a little different. Who will it be tomorrow? We don't know at this point."
So many current teams' problems could be solved in only an inner circle Hall of Famer would come out of retirement and play for them at their highest level.
He probably wishes Doc Ellis would pitch a no-hitter for him, too.
Or that he was Doc Ellis pitching a no-hitter.
Or mebbe that he was dropping acid with Doc Ellis.
I used to send reviews of concerts to a small list of friends. Now I'll just make y'all suffer my thoughts.
1. Sometime between June 2010 and October 2011, either Minneapolis gained hipster guys or Minneapolis hipster guys found Zola Jesus. I'd've thought they'd've been there the whole time, as it was Pitchfork (plus esoteric but non-hipster Brainwashed) that tipped me to her. At first I thought they were gays, but then I saw a few clearly hitting on women. Then I remembered everything I had read at Hipster Runoff, though I was unprepared for the hipster pompadour.
1a. I have very strong negative opinions against "ironic facial hair". As a man who wears his facial hair earnestly (which includes earnest laziness), and who considers himself a but of a facial hair aficionado, it's like they're mocking all I hold dear.
1b. I'd say twice as many people were there as there were last time. And 100% of the increase was hipsters.
2. Opener "Xanopticon" was decent electronic music. He reminded me of early-90's Aphex Twin, and mid-90's Autechre and u-Ziq, but played in a way that Skrillex fans could appreciate. If he had a piece of music for sale for $10 or less, I might have bought it, but all he had was vinyl.
3. I last saw Zola Jesus in June of 2010. She had just released her "crossover" EP, Stridulum, and was touring off that. She only played those 6 songs plus one more and was on stage for less than half an hour. Tonight, after releasing another EP and a full album, she played for 55 minutes, which was a lot more satisfying.
4. She's got a lot more stage presence, and really has eliminated what I and EAR call "caged-animal pacing", in which a singer backs up and walks forward on the same short path on stage, much like the polar bears' swimming pattern at the Como Zoo. Alanis Morrisette did this a lot when we'd see her televised performances. Ariel Pink did it when I saw him, too.
5. She's like 4'10", now she's wearing this linen poncho-type thing, and had a screen projector basically project blips and flashing lights onto her as a singer. And when she'd swing her arms around, she'd get a butterfly effect.
6. The pairing of the last two songs was phenomenal. The final song before the finale had a cacophonous instrumental ending during which she jumped out into the audience (right next to me and started headbanging or something). Then after a 30-60 second offstage break, she came out to organ drones for her slow-building chant, "Run Me Out", showing off her classically-trained pipes, and also hitting quite an emotional peak.
7. Her vocals have improved, too. She's growing in to this whole "performing" thing. I'm excited to see where this takes her.
8. I really thought that my eldest daughter would get into the performance, so I took a little video clip when she sang this song. It actually turned out very well.
Anyways, last time, I gave a reserved recommendation for seeing her. I sense she's going to keep getting bigger, and so it was a great time to see her before that happened. As long as expectations like a full set or singing as well as on the album were kept low, it was a good show. Now I can remove those reservations: Zola Jesus puts on a good show.
Bonus! The Valusia EP comes with lyrics! Unfortunately, the new album, Conatus, does not. (I really don't know what half of her lyrics are.)
I saw there will be a new Black Keys album out December 6. That's something I will probably end up acquiring.
I'm about to listen to Primus's first new one in twelve years. Even at their best it took a few listens, so I'm a little intimidated.
I like some Primus in small doses. Never had the urge to listen to an entire Primus album.
Yeah. Although I've always been a casual fan of theirs, I never go through Primus obsession phases like I do with a lot of my favorite bands. Too much Primus can be a little...sludgy and same-y.
Finishing it now. I have to say, it might be my favorite of theirs. It's lively and fun throughout.
I didn't do a soccer post yesterday because I was moving back to Mom & Dad's, as well as I was working on my laptop and it was an international break. So if you're jonesing for soccer, tune into ESPN2 today.
Germany-Belgium - Noon (Euro 2012 Qualifier)
Birds of War-Ecuador - 6PM (Friendly)
Brazil-Mexico - 8:30 (Friendly)
Also, ESPN3.com is airing all (or almost all) the other Euro 2012 qualifiers at Noon.
Got tickets to the Sporting KC-NY Red Bulls game this Saturday. It will be my first professional soccer game, I'm pretty excited. Should be a good one too, what with the playoff implications and everything.
Oh, have a good time. I've been to a Fire game at Soldier Field and one at Toyota Park. The SF game was before a Real Madrid-Chivas Guadalajara game, so most people were there for that. The TP game was against Houston in the rain. Both were a great time. That new stadium down in KC looks beautiful, so that should be nice.
It's 2-0 to Ze Germans at the half.
The current team out there for Die Mannschaft really shows the "New Germany" - Sami Khedira (German-born of Tunisian father & German Mother), Mesut Özil (3rd gen Turkish-German), and Mario Gomez (German-born, Spanish Father & German mother)
I know a bunch of citizens collect Homer Hankies, and I'm not against that, but this Reusse column hit home for me, especially this part:
It may be because I lived in D.C. in 1987 but I never got the whole homer hankie thing and am proud to say that although I've gone to at least 12 playoff games and all 4 of the 1991 World Series games, I have never waved a homer hankie at a Twins game. Now Get Off My Lawn!!
I call bullsh!t on the last line of Reusse's article. Clearly, the homer hanky isn't to blame for the demise of baseball. Playoff ticket lotteries and exorbitant prices keep 'true' fans out of the ballpark. Besides, post season baseball is inherently different than the regular season because every pitch, every hit, every run could be the difference between winning and losing. Baseball is a contemplative game over the course of the regular season, but during the playoffs there is more weight placed on individual performances, and emotional responses take the place of rational thinking.
Bingo. Calling fans out on the carpet for being most excited for the most meaningful games is nonsense at best. Furthermore, I've seen a handful of games from decades ago, and even the tie-wearing audiences got rowdy if the game meant enough.
The times haven't changed, Reusse has.
Furthermore, if it keeps people off of their cell phones and away from anything resembling the wave, I can't see how it's a bad thing.
I like the "game to be studied" line (being at the Metrodome on Sunday hit home just how different baseball and football are as spectator sports), but I just can't think of involved audience participation (ie, things that are seperate from "I'm bored and I'm at the game, ie "the wave") as a bad thing.
Homer Hankies pwn thunderstix
audience participation at ballgames for the most part is a waste. "Why are we standing and shouting loudly right now?" "Because the tying run is up to bat!" "Yeah, but it's a 3-3 game in the 4th, the bases are empty, and the batter is Nick Punto."
I can tell your story is made up, because no Twins fan in existence other than my father-in-law would cheer for a Punto at bat.
Somehow, it fits that the score could be 3-3 with Nick Punto at bat and he'd be considered the tying run.
If the announcers called him the "potential go-ahead run" in that situation, they had better be snickering.
Zing!
replies posted during work meetings can only end up half-bakef
I am in awe. Even I don't post during meetings. 🙂
I see what Pat is getting at, but I think he's got the causation all wrong, and is quite in danger of making the Twins out to be a lot more influential than they really are. If anything, I would say that years of being told--by members of the media such as Mr. Reusse no less--that hometown fans have a huge influence on the game, we all think that we're more important than we really are in the outcome of the game. We know we can't go out there and throw a pitch or hit the ball, but when you're at the stadium, you figure if you make noise with your neighbors, maybe you can have some positive impact on the field. To add to this, many commentators on television have next to nothing to add in terms of thoughtful analysis, so their commentary often comes down to "it's loud in here and hard to concentrate," etc., which leads to the perception that the fans help decide the game, which perpetuates the behavior. In that regard, if he wants to throw stones, I think the Metrodome (and its reputation for being a loud place) would be as much to blame as anything, and the standing and yelling would happen regardless of whether anyone was waving something in the air.
To his main point about whether fans are over-doing the standing and yelling, etc., I am somewhat sympathetic though I wouldn't go as far as Reusse. In the past, I've never really liked standing for every hitter that gets two strikes in the ninth. (Or even two strikes with two outs in the ninth.) At least inasmuch as it seems obligatory to stand in such situations and sometimes I don't really feel the out coming. I don't know if it's superstition or what, but when I'm at a baseball game, I generally prefer to be reactive rather than proactive. That's more a matter of preference than anything, though.
To the point of whether the cheering has lost its spontaneity, that's on the teams and their scoreboard operators as much as anything. We're constantly prompted on when we should "get loud," and teams clearly want fans to make noise in certain situations and they aren't afraid to tell us when they want it. I could do without the scoreboard-prompted cheering, personally. I could also do without a lot of the cheering prompts from the organ, or the constant sound-bites between pitches baiting the crowd into cheering along.
This. The NBA is possibly the worst offender. Ear-bleed inducing sound effects/music piped in constantly in an enclosed space. I want to be entertained, to be sure. But I want to be entertained by the action on the floor, not all the artifice.
Many fans certainly want to be "involved" -- and have an overblown sense of their importance to the action on the field/court. But there are many ways to enjoy a game. I'm not bothered by the Wave, or beach balls, or buxom wenches playing the exhibitionist (well, ok, that depends on whether I'm with my family or not). We go to games to be entertained. I can still enjoy the game action without doing the Wave.
I AM bothered by loud, obnoxious drunks, people who start fights, and franchise operators who insist on taking too much focus away from the actual game with their desperate attempts to "entertain" me.
The Diamondbacks were a huge offender of the "make some noise" sin. The screens beg for it almost every half-inning and the event staff runs out to the stands to hold up big signs that say NOISE on them near the end of the game.
I love that people get ridiculously into the game. I dislike anything that detracts focus on the game, and I guess beach balls would be near the top of that list. If you're so bored by baseball that you need to bring a beach ball to stay entertained, why did you buy a ticket? That's just weird to me.
Mean drunks are the worst. It's bad that they're ruining my night, and worse that they're ruining the experience for my kids. Perhaps worst of all, they're so soused that they aren't even going to remember the game. Dude, you could have blacked out anywhere, and it wouldn't have cost you a baseball ticket and exorbitant prices for America's worst beers.
Me too
BPPGWY.
All we needed was for FSN to start talking about you on its broadcast and you could have been the next Steve Bartman.
So, you have never been to a Vikings game, eh?
Never.
I've been to a Redskins game, a couple Chargers games, a couple Bears games, and a couple 49ers games. The most recent experience, at a 49ers game, was quite fun, which may have had something to do with the premo seats (6th row or thereabouts, which seems to have put me sufficiently below the eardrum-splitting noise level seats). My prior experience at a 49ers game was fun as well.
Actually, now that I think about it, I've never really experienced drunk a-holes ruining my time at an NFL game, and since all the games were outdoors, the noise levels weren't too horrible.
My NBA experiences (old Chicago Stadium, new Chicago Stadium, Arco) varied from "awesome" (both Chicago games, during the MJ period) to "less awesome" (Kings game, remarkable for great seats and the halftime retirement of C-Webb's jersey; but the noise level was horrible and I had a splitting headache afterwards).
This can be a delicate line, I think. What do you make of minor league baseball? There seem to be plenty of sideshows there, generally in good fun. I guess I've made peace with some of the sideshows, but really don't care for the "MAKE NOISE, JUST YELL OR SOMETHING, DON'T BE QUIET THIS ISNT A LIBRARY" scoreboard prompts. If you want the fans to cheer, at least maybe be more creative than telling us to make noise, or indicate otherwise that this is a critical juncture in the game.
You raise a good point, ubes. I have been entertained by the River Cats, but mostly by the baseball and the beautiful stadium. They haven't had to Veeck-wreck the baseball to entertain the crowds in Sactown.
That said, I've always been amused by they ballpigs in St. Paul. I think the Veeck family (and other success stories in minor league baseball/independent baseball) have a lot of marketing savvy and guts. More power to 'em.
I'm more bothered by the "major league" franchises that seem determined to distract you from the quality of the competition.
Fair enough. If anything, I think some major league sports could probably stand to inject a bit more light-hearted fun into their mix instead of the usual message that major league sports are Serious Business, but I do agree that the sideshows are more appropriate at minor league events.
I actually don't mind some of the side shows so much as where we started, with the excessive noise and scoreboard demands for screaming. If I wanted to go to a heavy metal concert (or whatever "music" they happen to be shoving down my earholes), I'd
be cheaptoygo to a heavy metal concert.I'm mostly GOMLing here about noise. Bring it down a few notches, and I will enjoy the frisbee dogs, stiltwalkers, big-headed mascots and whatever in-between stints of actual athletic competition on the field.
The NBA wipes out the first two weeks of the regular season. There's a "significant gulf on virtually all issues," sayeth Stern.
Methinks that the doldrums of a bad recession is not the time to be playing chicken over how to divide $3.8 billion.
Yeah, nobody's coming out of this looking well. The players are really getting fleeced by the owners, but the owners correctly assume that the fans will call the players greedy, because they don't understand where the players expect the money to come from, and they have the player's faces to focus their rage on. Old fat cats in private boxes just don't catch the eye of many fans.
Given the state of America right now, a lost season could really piss off the NBA's fans more than usual. All sides must know this. Baseball had steroids to recover, but I'm guessing the NBA noticed how bad MLB's numbers were in 1995.
As someone with a slight interest in basketball, and a huge interest in seeing the Wolves this year, I'm pretty bummed about this. It does not feel like the owners are negotiating in good faith, and it seems like Stern is doing his best to back them with an iron fist. Pretty disappointing.
Stern's legacy is on the line. He's done some good stuff for the league, and some bad stuff. I'm sure the owners have exerted significant pressure on him to break the players, but if this lasts, say, 30 or 40 games, Stern is the loser.
Yeah...Stern is saying a lot of the right things through the media, but he does seem to be following the big money here. It's disappointing, but it's just business, I suppose. The whole thing is gross, but this is the sports world.
The players should absolutely start defecting to Europe en masse. That's how they win this thing. If guys are getting checks over there, the league has lost their leverage. Kobe, LeBron, D-Wade, Nowitzki, et al. over playing in Europe would be a huge deal. How bad would ownership look? The players could say, all we want to do is play ball. The owners don't want us, so we're over here, playing until the owners are ready to turn the lights on.
I think they've hesitated because they were optimistic, but with a couple of stars already planning to play there, it's going to get easier for others to follow. The last thing the NBA wants is for America not to look like the place to play basketball.
If the players are making money without the NBA, exactly what leverage do the owners have? There's some injury risk, of course, but when paychecks flow in, the owners can sit there with their empty stadia and wonder what happened.
Yeah, I'm definitely agreeing with you. I hope this happens, if that's what it takes.
While I agree with you in spirit, nearly all of the top Euro leagues impose a limit of two Americans per team. That's gonna leave a lot of NBAer's on the outside looking in.
It's also generally not straightforward to get a work permit in Europe, which could make it difficult.
Is there anything more invigorating than convincing a cable/internet service provider to give you cheaper service by threatening to leave?
Doing the same thing to a phone company?
It was a phone company. I knew I needed another slash line in there.
In that case, no.. there is nothing more invigorating.
I've been there! Midwest Wireless charged me an exorbitant (to me, at the time) sum for overages one month back in 2000, and after I finally paid it, I kept getting mail saying it needed to be paid. I made countless calls saying it had been paid, and I had proof via my bank statements that the exact amount was paid in full, in addition to my regular bills. I kept getting "Yeah, right" responses, and they referred me to a collection agency, that started demanding money and talking to me like I just didn't feel like paying the bill. Since it had gotten to the point where I was flirting with jail time, I paid it.
Then, I went to Midwest Wireless. I provided documentation of both payments, I had names and dates of the people who harassed me. I made some pretty bold threats, and said if it went to court I was the type of guy who could talk circles around them and the fact that they'd destroyed my credit rating would be enough to get them in big trouble.
You don't even want to know how much they took care of me after that.
Phone companies are bad with that sort of thing. We didn't get quite that far in the "you din't pay your bill/yes we certainly did" fight, but...
We did have a long struggle with our cell service provider over a billion different things that overzealous sales people had promised or assured us, then another long struggle with them over a bunch of various things that their retentions department had promised or assured us. Finally, we were just about ready to be done with it forever, we called them, and before we even mentioned anything, they mentioned that they had gone over our records and saw that because of where I worked, I was eligible for a flat, permanent discount that superceded everything else, anyway.
We had mentioned numerous times where I work, because we knew there was some level of discount. They had simply told us before that it didn't apply.
When I got my Droid over the summer, I discovered that I was eligible for a state employee discount on my entire Verizon bill (which was then in the Mrs's name). We did the work right then and there to get the account switched to my name so that I could take the discount. The COMPANY f-ed up the paperwork, then stuck their middle finger up at me when I said "what's the dealieou? Where's my discount?" and said I had to start all over from scratch with the paperwork, even though THEY screwed up with the data entry.
long story short, I STILL haven't gotten the account switched to my name. F-ers.
Foreigners?
Sour Cream's first day of all-day preschool started three hours ago, and ended an hour ago when she had to be picked up with a 101.7 temperature. She's devastated that she had to leave. Poor kid...there goes her perfect attendance record.
Just think, only several thousand more days, and they could've written about her in the local paper!
Missed it by that much. Well, there's always the opposite record. Maybe she'll break that.
A single plate appearance is enough to continue a consecutive games streak, so I figure as long as she survives at least an hour tomorrow, the streak lives on.
She did draw a picture of herself and me before she came home, so yeah, man. I'll count it.
Sweet. A parent who wants to send a kid back to school with a fever! Every teacher will thank you, spoons. 😉
Ha. Don't worry...if she's sick tomorrow I'll be glad to keep her home.
It came out of nowhere. She was her usual happy, singing self this morning on the way to school, and two hours later she was death warmed over. It's very food poisoning-y, except she hasn't thrown up or anything.
It doesn't take long with kids that age. The good news, hopefully, is that in my experience if it comes on that fast it tends to go away pretty fast as well.
That' always been the case with Skim, definitely. Sour Cream hasn't gotten sick all that often, so this is a little new to her. She got some shots a few days ago so this could be a reaction to them.
Okay, so now I'm so sick I can barely stand. That was fast. Ugh.
Better check Sour Cream's "use by" date
I think there may be too much caffeine in the coffee in Seattle.
check out his chest plate on the costume. Six-pack!!!
Damn, I love the weirdness of Seattle.
The police took his costume, eh? That seems like sort of a dick move, as well as ineffective. It wasn't a weapon. What they're trying to take from him is the crazy, and stealing his costume isn't going to get that done.
Apparently Kenny Williams was high for at least part of the new management decision-making process:
What a bizarre thing to even discuss publicly. Sounds like he just wants to pump up Konerko's ego or something, certainly that's not a realistic thought these days.
I loved this, too:
I'm not sure it's a good sign when a manager's first thought is that he would prefer to have a historically great player playing for him. I wonder what his post-game pressers will be like. "Well, obviously, tonight I was hoping to have Mariano Rivera close for us, but I looked in the bullpen and Jesse Crain was the best we could do. So, I had to adjust, I had to do things a little different. Who will it be tomorrow? We don't know at this point."
So many current teams' problems could be solved in only an inner circle Hall of Famer would come out of retirement and play for them at their highest level.
He probably wishes Doc Ellis would pitch a no-hitter for him, too.
Or that he was Doc Ellis pitching a no-hitter.
Or mebbe that he was dropping acid with Doc Ellis.
Going back to yesterday's conversation about "Gimme Shelter", I just got the Alabama Shakes EP and I would nominate Brittany Howard.
I used to send reviews of concerts to a small list of friends. Now I'll just make y'all suffer my thoughts.
1. Sometime between June 2010 and October 2011, either Minneapolis gained hipster guys or Minneapolis hipster guys found Zola Jesus. I'd've thought they'd've been there the whole time, as it was Pitchfork (plus esoteric but non-hipster Brainwashed) that tipped me to her. At first I thought they were gays, but then I saw a few clearly hitting on women. Then I remembered everything I had read at Hipster Runoff, though I was unprepared for the hipster pompadour.
1a. I have very strong negative opinions against "ironic facial hair". As a man who wears his facial hair earnestly (which includes earnest laziness), and who considers himself a but of a facial hair aficionado, it's like they're mocking all I hold dear.
1b. I'd say twice as many people were there as there were last time. And 100% of the increase was hipsters.
2. Opener "Xanopticon" was decent electronic music. He reminded me of early-90's Aphex Twin, and mid-90's Autechre and u-Ziq, but played in a way that Skrillex fans could appreciate. If he had a piece of music for sale for $10 or less, I might have bought it, but all he had was vinyl.
3. I last saw Zola Jesus in June of 2010. She had just released her "crossover" EP, Stridulum, and was touring off that. She only played those 6 songs plus one more and was on stage for less than half an hour. Tonight, after releasing another EP and a full album, she played for 55 minutes, which was a lot more satisfying.
4. She's got a lot more stage presence, and really has eliminated what I and EAR call "caged-animal pacing", in which a singer backs up and walks forward on the same short path on stage, much like the polar bears' swimming pattern at the Como Zoo. Alanis Morrisette did this a lot when we'd see her televised performances. Ariel Pink did it when I saw him, too.
5. She's like 4'10", now she's wearing this linen poncho-type thing, and had a screen projector basically project blips and flashing lights onto her as a singer. And when she'd swing her arms around, she'd get a butterfly effect.
6. The pairing of the last two songs was phenomenal. The final song before the finale had a cacophonous instrumental ending during which she jumped out into the audience (right next to me and started headbanging or something). Then after a 30-60 second offstage break, she came out to organ drones for her slow-building chant, "Run Me Out", showing off her classically-trained pipes, and also hitting quite an emotional peak.
7. Her vocals have improved, too. She's growing in to this whole "performing" thing. I'm excited to see where this takes her.
8. I really thought that my eldest daughter would get into the performance, so I took a little video clip when she sang this song. It actually turned out very well.
Anyways, last time, I gave a reserved recommendation for seeing her. I sense she's going to keep getting bigger, and so it was a great time to see her before that happened. As long as expectations like a full set or singing as well as on the album were kept low, it was a good show. Now I can remove those reservations: Zola Jesus puts on a good show.
Bonus! The Valusia EP comes with lyrics! Unfortunately, the new album, Conatus, does not. (I really don't know what half of her lyrics are.)