For the Love of Baseball

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a huge baseball fan. I have followed and been a fan of the San Diego Padres since 1969, when I attended my first professional baseball game the first year the Padres entered the league. I suffered through many bad seasons, thoroughly enjoyed the 1984 season and whupping up on the Cubs and continue to root every day for my Padres. The strike of '94-'95 kinda' soured me but I came back because I think baseball is the truest sport in America. If you understand baseball, you'll understand life.
So it is with great distress that I find myself making the following commitment. I recently read that there is a movement to have the 2011 All-Star game moved from Arizona unless they repeal the recently passed immigration legislation.

In the wake of Arizona's new anti-immigration law, calls for repeal are coming from an unusual source: Major League Baseball players. Players are demanding the 2011 All-Star Game be moved from Phoenix, AZ unless the new law is repealed. (From moveon.org).

First of all, I don't believe for a minute that a majority of baseball players are calling for a repeal. There may be a few, but I'd bet money the majority of them either don't really care or they support the new law. Either way, I'm making the following commitment: If MLB and Commissioner Selig decide to move the game because of the law, I will:

a) No longer attend a major league game as long as Selig is commissioner,
b) Not purchase any official MLB merchandise as long as Selig is commissioner, or
c) Not access MLB.com or any website officially associated with MLB.com as long as Selig is commissioner.

I know my little personal boycott will have exactly zero effect on the game of baseball. But at least I'll be able to say I made a personal sacrifice to support something I really believe in. So Mr. Selig, it's up to you. You can let the game be played as scheduled or you can bow to the left-wing, whacked out liberals and move it. I suggest you man up and let them play in Arizona.

Another Obama telling quote

This line is from the official Fathers' Day proclamation sent out by Obama:

Nurturing families come in many forms, and children may be raised by a father and mother, a single father, two fathers, a step father, a grandfather, or caring guardian.

OK, fine. But I'm offended that he left out so many others. What about two fathers AND a mother, what about a father AND two mothers, what about three fathers, what about a father and a goat? So offensive that he would exclude so many.

Pop Music and Paul

I've tapped my foot to many a Beatles and Paul McCartney song. Being a fan of pop music, they were the kings for many years. But I'll also be the first to admit, I've always liked the playfulness, sillyness and sometime ridiculousness of top-40 pop music. Remember 'Season in the Sun', 'Billy, Don't be a Hero' and 'Spiders and Snakes'? I love them all. And Paul McCartney's music fit right into that mode, as shallow as a California puddle in June. But his success got him a gig at the White House where he crooned to Michelle Obama. All was well until his comment, "After the last eight years, it's good to have a president that knows what a library is." He should really stick to just singing.
But then he did receive the 'Library of Congress Gershwin Award.' Boy, if we're going to give him that, we might as well give Obama a Nobel Peace Prize and Al Gore & Sean Penn an Academy Award. Oh wait .......

Addicted to American Culture

Ya, I'll admit it. I'm hooked on American culture. Actually, I think I'm hooked on following American culture rather than the culture itself. I guess that's my attempt to be in the world but not of the world. So I was very interested in Entertainment Weekly's recent article on pop-culture characters of the last 20 years. From the introduction to their article:



To help celebrate Entertainment Weekly‘s 20th anniversary, the writers and editors have carefully curated a list of the 100 greatest characters in pop-culture over the last 20 years. Whether the fictional women, men, ogres, muppets, babies, and cartoon rockers who made our list were initially created before 1990 didn’t matter so long as they made a lasting impact in the culture after 1990.



Their complete list has 100 names, but the top three are:

#3: Buffy from Buffy the Vampire Slayer
#2: Harry Potter from the Harry Potter series
#1: Homer Simpson from The Simpsons



What do you think? Is Homer Simpson the greatest character in pop-culture over the last 20 years? And if he is, what does that say about the state of entertainment in America? Of course, these lists are made to try to get arguments started as everyone will have a different opinion. But there's not much to argue about here. The list is a sad statement of the decline of standards, principles and morals in our country. There are a couple of nice entries on the list, Woody from the Toy Story series (#25) and Napoleon Dynamite from Napoleon Dynamite (#88), but beyond that, there's not much to feel good about. Most either represent the sex (Carrie Bradshaw from Sex and the City), violence (Master Chief from the Halo series), or depravity (Eric Cartman from South Park) of our world. We wonder why there are so many problems in our world. Leave it to Entertainment Weekly to show us.