"In today's 24-hour news cycle, it's hard for something not be over-saturated," states the Colonel "I'm a little bit older than you and I remember when athletes, celebrities, fads, whatever weren't over-saturated because of access to them 24/7. There was some mystery surrounding people. Now we know what they eat for breakfast."
I bring this all up because of the picture to the left. Yes that's Giants closer Brian Wilson in a spandex tuxedo at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday. Judging from the reaction on Twitter, people think Wilson is trying to hard to be funny/amusing/clever/whatever. While the other reaction finds him hilarious.
Full disclosure. I like Wilson when he says something right off the top of his head in a deadpan matter. Like when he mocked Eric Karros' hair at the All-Star Game on Tuesday which even got that old grump Tim McCarver laughing. That is when Wilson is at his best. Hardly anyone can think of something funny off the top of his head like Wilson.
When Wilson shows up the ESPY'S though in a spandex tuxedo I have a "meh" reaction. I don't find it funny but at the same time I don't think to myself "I wish he would go away forever like Snooki".
Baseball is a sport right now that needs somebody, anybody to give the sport recognition. The All-Star ratings stink, the playoff/World Series ratings stink. Baseball doesn't have a star or an villain. It's a faceless sport in a time when you can't have faceless sports.
People today don't root against teams themselves. They root against the players on that specific team. Take the NFL or NBA for an example. Each sport has heroes and villains that even the casual fan recognize. You may hate or love Lebron, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant the list goes on, but you're definitely watching whenever they're games are on. Name one person in baseball right now with that kind of pull?
So even if Wilson has "jumped the shark" and descended into the absurd, baseball needs Brian Wilson more than people realize. Loved or hated, people are tuning into the ninth inning of Giants games hoping he either melts down or saves the Giants again.
Sorry, but Roy Halladay, Tim Lincecum, Albert Pujols, and even Derek Jeter don't have that kind of pull right now. Brian Wilson does.
"Watching the Giants play these guys will drive you to becoming an alcoholic," says the Bandit.
The Colonel and I raise our glasses in agreement. As I said many times before, the Padres just wear out the Giants. Their hitters find every little hole to hit the ball to score runs. Their pitchers just do enough to shut down the Giants offense. It's maddening. Probably the reason why I'm downing shots of Jack Daniels straight tonight.
As of this moment, the Giants are down 1-0 in the seventh inning. The Padres of course scored with two outs at the beginning of the game. Of course the Giants got two men on base with one out and couldn't score. It's the same old song and dance folks.
Of course when the Giants finally chase the Padres starting pitcher, the Giants have to face their excellent bullpen. So more of the same happens. The Padres make spectacular defensive plays while the Giants look absolutely helpless. It also doesn't help matters when the Padres wear their shit brown uniforms. So you have to look at that hideous mess the entire game.
Finally fatso enters the game in the top of the ninth with the score still at 1-0 Padres. He didn't slide because San Diego doesn't want to feel the effects of an earthquake. And then a miracle happens. Aubrey Huff, who previously up to that point in the game had hit 1,324 ground balls to 2nd base, hit a game-tying home run. Huff hadn't hit a home run since early June. So needless to say that came out of nowhere.
Of course the Giants are still playing the Padres so they leave the top of the ninth inning tied. Which means of course instead of being shut out, they now have a chance to get their hearts broken. This is after all the Padres they're playing, heart break is always in play.
But it doesn't happen. The Giants are actually the ones doing the heartbreaking. The Giants scored the go-ahead run on a bases loaded walk. The Giants Padre'd the Padres. The Giants would go on to score a total of five runs that 12th inning and beat the fucking the Padres.
Maybe I'm the one descending into the absurd. Or it's just another night at the Mos Eisley Cantina.
I think Alex Rodriguez may be in that same "loved or hated" category as Wilson, although obviously it would be for different reasons.
ReplyDeleteBaseball is "faceless" because the same 5 or 6 teams that get the highest ratings get shoved down everyone else's throats week after week. I'd love to watch more Pirates/Rays/Indians games, but they're never on because of Yankees/Red Sox/Phillies vs each other or whomever.
ReplyDelete@Justin: But are people turning on their TV for Rodriguez?
ReplyDelete@Kris: That's the Colonel's and I next discussion. Is the waterazation of the sport due to the fact that other teams games are never shown?
@Keith Yep. MLB is at the tyranny of Fox, ESPN, & TBS trying to recoup rights money in a sport with declining ratings, in a time when most other sports are going up.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, those top teams don't really have any "personalities." The Yankees stifle it, the Red Sox got rid of "the dirtbags" and are more or less doing the same thing clubhouse-wise as New York, the Cubs are in last place, & the Dodgers are going to take years to recover from the McCourt regime. That leaves the Phillies and outside of Halladay & Howard they are as bland and boring as every other team. Maybe I need to be rooting for the Giants to repeat, so they get vaulted into the chosen fraternity.
ReplyDelete@Kris: I would say the Giants have been faulted into that fraternity since a lot of their games have been on Fox this season and five of their games have been on ESPN.
ReplyDelete@Keith True, but if the Giants don't win the World Series, those numbers will decline, I'm guessing.
ReplyDelete