Category: Orphans

This Atlantic.com article sums up pretty much everything I have learned today as for the reason I did not watch last night’s GOP presidential debate. (With the exception of NCIS, NCIS-Los Angeles and Sons Of Anarchy) Now, if we could only figure out why Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Jon Huntsman and, above all, Newt Gingrich are still in the race? Ego is the best I can figure. Probably after the next debate, the same question will be asked about Herman Cain.

It seems “The Godfather of Economics” is not nearly as popular as his “9-9-9 plan.” To sum it up, Cain’s Triple 9 plan equals either 27 or 729 or -9, or else it comes out to something else.

Perry could still be the long-shot — for Romney’s running mate. But I could be wrong although I hope I am. I can foresee a new slogan for our own Gov. Goodhair:

“Perry: Don’t go there.”

 

Today marks my 2,000th post on EFD since starting this blog during the Spring of 2005. I have had days when I did not post and I hardly ever write anything on weekends. I’ve been sidelined by hurricanes, business trips, long days at work and days when I just felt like Fido’s a**. I’ve tried to stay true to my beliefs that this space is my space and it is a place where I can practice the art of writing regardless of my ability to otherwise do so because of those instance such as long work days, hurricanes, business trips, vacations and weekends which have kept me from that practice. No matter what I write, how badly, how good, I have realized that if I don’t continue to practice I could lose abilities which were gained through more than 20 years as a professional writer. That is what keeps me going. Now, onto today’s big shoe show.

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Last night I watched for the second time a portion of “Catching Hell,” one of ESPN’s “30 For 30” film series. It is so named because the series features 30 stories from 30 filmmakers on subjects of the past 30 years. I have yet to see this particular film from start to finish, I hope to sometime, although I have seen the most important portions of the documentary.

The story tells of what might be otherwise just a quirky example of Americans and their superstitious obsession with sports were there not such dark socio-pyschological undercurrents involved. It is a cautionary tale of what could happen to anyone who might jump up to catch a foul ball, something one sees hundreds of times in ball parks and on TV. Except in this example, when the person emerges victoriously with the popped-up foul it evolves in something revealing the mean and even dangerous side of people who take their sports much too seriously.

Here are the important facts leading up to what has become known as the “Steve Bartman incident:”

• In October 2003 the Chicago Cubs were five outs away from winning the National League pennant. The Cubs had not played in the World Series since 1945 and had not won the world championship in 95 years.
• Mark Prior had pitched a three-hit shutout through the eighth inning with the Cubs leading 3-0 and led the Florida Marlins 3 games-to-2 in the sixth game of the best of seven series.
• The Marlins’ Luis Castillo was at bat with one out and a man on second.
• Castillo popped a foul up to the left field corner wall, behind the bullpen. The Cubs left fielder Moises Alou  jumped up for the foul as the ball drifted toward a seat.
• Steve Bartman and several other Cubs fans reached out to grab the ball, but Bartman deflected the ball away from Alou’s glove as the fielder and Bartman tried to catch it. Alou slammed his glove down in frustration and yelled at several of the fans. The Cubs pleaded to the umpires for interference but did not get the call.

Castillo continued playing, drew a wild pitch from Prior and as some said in the documentary, “the wheels began to come off” for the terminally-unlucky Cubs. Ivan Rodriguez singled bringing in Juan Pierre, the runner who advanced to third on the wild pitch. In the end, the Marlins sent 12 batters to the plate and beat the Cubs 8-3.

The crowd became agitated and eventually starting shouting “A**hole” at Bartman, who had to be led away by security. The next night, the Marlins came back to beat the Cubs 9-6. They won the league championship and beat the New York Yankees in the World Series. The Cubs have not won a  playoff game since the incident.

Bartman became personna non grata among many of his fellow Chicagoans. He received death threats and could  not use his credit card fearing someone would recognize him. He has never given an interview, despite issuing an apology and having a number of Cubs officials and players who absolved  him of blame. The Cubs organization issued a statement saying:

 “We would also like to remind everyone that games are decided by what happens on the playing field — not in the stands. It is inaccurate and unfair to suggest that an individual fan is responsible for the events that transpired in Game 6. He did what every fan who comes to the ballpark tries to do — catch a foul ball in the stands. That’s one of the things that makes baseball the special sport that it is.”

Alou eventually said it was time to forgive the incident and move on.

The film “Catching Hell” provides some tremendous insight into the American mob mentality, its members whom often go to great links to explain how much more “civilized” they are than their European and South American counterparts who spark riots at soccer matches.

Sports games — especially those in which one really can get wrapped up in watching — can bring moments of high emotion. I had several of those yesterday calling Houston Texans QB Matt Schaub a few choice names when he failed to do something productive with the football in the last seconds of Houston’s disappointing five-point loss to Oakland. Schaub ended up throwing the ball into the end zone into the hands of an Oakland defender, ending the game. After the game I saw a replay showing Schaub did not have all that easy of a choice. He could have thrown the ball high up in the air but it still might have been picked off or ruled incomplete.

Sports look easy on the tube, all in the first seconds when you see it. That is even to experienced practitioners such as Moises Alou. But what “Catching Hell” shows best is that we need to move beyond those emotional plays and moments. To blame an individual for the failure of team, is both irrational and fraught with danger. Baseball and football are “just a game” too often they are treated as something way beyond that. It is during those times when we lose perspective and gaining it back can often be difficult or even impossible.

Well, I tried.

I tried to write two pretty good screeds. They just weren’t good enough.

This has been such a s**tty day as well, that too much is going on in my mime. He keeps placing himself silently inside a box. It get’s kind of old. At least he isn’t noisy.

Were this a three-day weekend for me as it should be then perhaps life would be more tolerable than it is today. But I have to work tomorrow for a little while and that has definitely put a hitch in my giddy-up. Giddy-up. I like that. But I don’t like hitches in my giddy-up. Got that? Got giddy-up?

I better eat before I starve. Everyone else have a safe and wonderful Columbus Day in the states and a Happy Canadian Thanksgiving.

“Hey Big Money,” the aging black man said to me outside the store. “How ’bout a quarter?”

“I don’t know five people with a nickle” I replied, wondering what in the hell he wanted with a quarter. Why didn’t he ask for a dollar? Or $2,500, like a dude in a wheelchair asked me for, in jest no doubt, outside a Houston convenience store awhile back.

People are always coming up to me asking me for money. Usually it’s the same story: “I am from out-of-town/Houston/Louisiana and I need just a dollar or two to buy some gas so I can get to wherever.”

Look, I realize these are hard times but the outside the grocery store or convenience ambush wears a little thin sometimes.

Also, why is it that I look like I would have any money? I drive a 12-year-old Toyota Tacoma with a few bruises and scratches and a cracked windshield, luckily, trending toward the passenger side from the middle. I say luckily because it doesn’t require replacement to get an inspection sticker each year.

I don’t know, maybe I am just a walking liberal. Maybe it’s the cheap clothes I wear. If I drove a late model Beemer or a BMW or Caddy and was wearing nice threads perhaps people would be reluctant to hit me up because they figure that the reason I have money is that I don’t give it away to pan-handlers. ¿Comprende?

Look, I know some people need help. But some want to squander what they have on some crack or some meth or some Christ in a Can, preferably 40-ounce.

I don’t carry a lot of cash on me, as in hardly any. If I carry any cash it usually for an emergency or to buy something with the exact change.

It isn’t that I am a tightwad. It’s just I don’t have a whole lot of money, the why of which isn’t important in this context.

Maybe it’s that I have a kind face that people want to bum money off me. Yes, a kind face. I don’t know what kind.

Yes, it is no longer that oddly-shaped tropical wave out there in the Gulf. Nor is it TD 13, meaning Tropical Depression 13. The National Hurricane Center upped the storm’s status to Tropical Storm Lee this afternoon and it appears to threaten New Orleans with a lot of wind, a lot of network reporters and probably a great deal of hype. Perhaps I am being a tad redundant.

The national media, at least the electronic media, seem to have an obsession with New Orleans. Who can blame them? Who wouldn’t want to go to Fun City on an expense account? Who cares if it’s raining or the wind blowing? A real storm would be just great, then the reporter could go out and do a Dan Rather-style standup in the howling wind and rain, then dry off in the truck and haul ass to Pat O’Brien’s for a little French Quarter-style hedonism.

I am being somewhat facetious here and even more than a bit cynical.

What I see as a media obsession didn’t just start with Katrina. As long as I have been associated with journalism, what I call the “New Orleans Media Obsession (NOMO),” has been evident. Katrina was a journalist’s gift that fed NOMO and that kept on giving.

That is not to say Katrina was not a compelling story. It was and it remains that way, to some extent. But a lot of folks which suffered their own disasters and felt their own losses got tired of NOMO and wished they’d hear no mo’.

To survivors — if you want to label them as such — of latter storms such as Rita and Ike, New Orleans is a damned touchy subject.

It isn’t that those who suffered their own loss or went through the unpleasant experiences of a hurricane cannot empathize with a magnificent American city which lost hundreds of people and places and much of its soul during Katrina. Rather, they wish the media had also been there in smaller places like Cameron and Sabine Pass and Bridge City and even towns 70 miles inland after Rita. Sure, the media were there when the “optics” looked good. But when people were sweating and beginning to smell a little ripe and were a bit weary and even bitchy, where was Anderson Cooper then? Why he was doing a standup in front of the St. Louis Cathedral, right next to Jackson Square and facing the mighty Mississippi.

The national media going where the largest number of people are involved is something that most folks should understand although many probably do not. New Orleans and Katrina involved something unparalleled in modern U.S. history. But forget the hinterlands for a moment, not nearly as much attention was paid to the Mississippi coast either where Katrina killed several hundred people and some places were wiped off the map.

So New Orleans could get 20 inches of rain — perhaps over several days. In our drought-ravaged southeastern corner of Texas, we wish we could get a little of that rain or even more than a little.

The truth is no one can say for sure what Lee will do next. The spaghetti models have been thrown against the walls every which a’ ways. The confluence of Texas and Louisiana at Sabine Lake isn’t expected to get but between a half-inch to a couple of inches of rain at that. It’s expected to be pretty windy because of Lee for several days. That will at least keep these hotter ‘n hell temperatures down a bit.

We really don’t know what will happen until it happens though. Pretty much every hurricane I’ve seen hit our area was originally forecast to make landfall as much as 100 or more miles away. Science has thankfully become better at predicting hurricanes, and the National Weather Service cannot overemphasize that people should not rest their focus on where the center of a hurricane hits because there are way too many variables which affect the dangers and potential damage of tropical systems.

So stay tuned. If it looks like rain, perhaps you might consider getting out of it.

Or not.