Shameful.
Look, I’m not much of a sports fan. Personally, I think sports are, for the most part, a trivial distraction akin to other insanely and inexplicably popular crap like American Idol.
That being said, I did play sports as a youngster and I have to say, the Cubs/Sox fight was one of the most shameful displays of shitty sportsmanship I have ever seen. Yeah, it was a hard slide into home but that’s how the game is played. What happened next- one of the hardest punches I’ve ever seen outside a boxing ring- was a fucking disgrace.
Both Cubs and Sox fans alike should be ashamed of this horrible display of nonsensical violence.
Damn, that looks like it hurt!
Great shot, though. (The photo, that is, not the punch.)
In fairness, I got the photo from the Trib and it was taken by one Phil Velasquez.
Ha, sports are crap? Isn’t climbing, in some way, considered a sport?
Now American Idol…..that’s crap.
Ha! I knew I would take more heat for dissing sports in general than I would for criticizing this incident in particular.
Here’s the difference: millions of Americans aren’t watching me rock climb at the expense of knowing a thing or two about what’s going on in the world around them.
So if the sport of rock climbing became a world-wide phenomenon and you became it’s Tiger Woods, with all the fame and fortune and money that followed, would you have a problem with all of your fans taking 1-2 hours out of their day to cheer you on and have a good time doing so?
Ha!
Perhaps I would use my very, very hypothetical fame and fortune to promote the issues I care about: politics, culture, blogging, annoying and antagonizing Tankboy, you know, the usual.
And that’d be fantastic. But just because someone wanted to watch you climb doesn’t mean they’re unaware of what’s going on in the world around them. Hell, anything we take time to do takes time away from something else. I’m not coming down on you at all, but not all sports fans are as you paint them.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to put on some emo and dance in the dark.
Says Dave of this picture, “That’s so cool”.
Sports fans. Easily amused.
Yes, I think professional sports drains an inordinate amount of resources that could be better spent, in my opinion. I realize this is a nearly heretical statement in most parts of this country. I also realize that how people spend their time is their own business and I do not think all sports fans are uninformed.
But I think it’s inarguable that when you can make millions of times more money for having a talent for hitting or throwing a ball than you can by teaching a child it is more evidence of America’s fucked up priorities.
I also think if people took half an interest in their own government and its doings as they do with the rise and fall of the fortunes of their favortie sports teams we would have better leaders and a better country.
But really the point of my post was to express my disgust with the fight and I’m actually a bit bemused to find that it’s my own lack of interest in sports which draws more ire.
PS: Have fun dancing, but please try not to cut yourself. ;)
PPS: “Dancing in the Dark?” So Springsteen is now emo too? Now I’m REALLY confused. ;)
I agree with everything you say. But it’s not your lack of interest that I’m interested in…it’s the way you portrayed sports and sports fans. Give some of us some credit.
I never said ALL sports fans. I was speaking for myself and myself only when I said:
“Personally, I think sports are, for the most part, a trivial distraction akin to other insanely and inexplicably popular crap like American Idol.”
I might be inclined to give the credit you ask for if a single chicago Cubs or Sox fan would step up and say “Yeah, that fight was an ugly embarassment.”
Instead, I hear “ooh, wicked punch!,” and “cool photo,” and the like. Whatever happened to sportsmanship?
Nikkos:
As for the fight, Barrett is a punk. He hasn’t been consistent in his story on why he did it. Fact is he reacted poorly in the heat of the moment. The only White Sox player who really made a mistake was Brian Anderson, who inexplicably tackled John Mabry. The whole thing was caused by poor sportsmanship.
As for sports in general: You say that sports (and I would presume movies, art, fiction, magazines, music, etc) all take away from things that you consider important: politics and the like. My thought is: lighten up Francis.
I think it is possible for someone to be interested in sports AND politics, and music, art, literature… they are all diversions from our own personal lives (unless of course you play music or sports or write or make art…).
American Idol, I don’t understand.
That said, A.J. Pierzynski is the man most major laegue players would like to see beaned (2nd place was Barry Bonds) in a Sports Illustrated poll. I’m not saying Barret was right in punching him, but I think lots of people took some pleasure in watching that. I don’t know much about him or other White Sox players but I thought the fight was pretty exciting. And come on, nobody gets hurt in baseball fights. I thought the picture was cool too. The world keeps turning…
The planets must have aligned because I would agree with Nikkos on this one. From the responses I’ve seen here, it’s almost like sports fans only care about the carnage or what team is doing the best, etc. That they don’t care about the other issues like politics or the like. I’m not just basing it on this post but the countless others. It seems like Nikkos and I are the only ones that really debate the issues. I don’t know if other people just don’t care or if they just don’t want to get into the middle of it but I would think that with as many readers/contributors as you have here, there would be more responses on the political as well as social issues/debates.
About this particular issue, I find it just another example of athletes who don’t deserve 1/100,000th the money they make. It reminds me of the assault charges that were brought against the NFL defensive back Ricky Manning Jr. who beat a guy unconscious in a Dennys after Manning teased the guy for using a laptop. So basically, I agree with Nikkos that America has a few priorities out of wack.
http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2419713
Gabe and nikkos in agreement? Jeebus help us all.
Seriously, thanks for the support Gabe!For more on America’s fucked-up priorities:
http://myfriendscallmenikkos.blogspot.com/2006/05/americas-priorities-are-joke.html
Just remember that I didn’t say which priorities which we may agree/disagree about but about sports vs politics, we seem to agree. Other than that, it’s all fair game.
cry more newb
In case anyone’s looking for the great pic that sat atop this post, be advised the Tribiune contacted Metblogging and reminded us that it’s not legal to use their photo without their permission.
I’m sure this had nothing to do with me slagging the ball club owned by the Tribune company.
It is ironic though because they probably would not have even seen the photo if I had not crdited it to the Trib and to their photog. I get the impression Trib employees spend most of their time googling themselves to see if they were cool enough to get a mention in a blog.
Meanwhile, bloggers google themselves in the hopes that one of their posts has broken through to the MSM.