#Shameless MLB Enables #DisgracedFacebook

4/5/2018

The gray t-shirt guy, left, was the reason for Frick and Frack and Gary vanishing from the tube on Wednesday. May I offer a thumbs-down for this crass maneuver?

Catering to the Thumb Generation (of which I am a fringe member), Major League Baseball disappeared a game from television on Wednesday.

The business that still charmingly thinks of itself as The National Pastime has a new partnership with the dippy kid in the gray t-shirt, Mark Zuckerberg.

I think that means all information on Mets Nation -- all we scruffy, gauche losers who root for one miracle every generation – is now in the hands of Comrade Vladimir in the Kremlin.

Facebook was already chums with something called Cambridge Analytica which seems to have been in cahoots with various apparatchiks during the 2016 election including the possible next national security advisor, Mad Dog Bolton.

Baseball is letting the t-shirt guy put the occasional major-league game on Facebook so people can like or dislike what transpires on the field. The price for one MLB game a week is $30-million for the season – that’s what matters, isn’t it?

In real life, it’s not that hard to tell if baseball fans like or dislike something. Just the other day, Giancarlo Stanton struck out five times in his Yankee Stadium debut and Yankee fans faithfully gave him something called a Bronx Cheer.

Schnooky old baseball managed to distract from Wednesday’s Mets-Phillies game in Queens. James Wagner of the Times appropriately wrote an entire sagacious article about the t-shirt guy’s coup rather than the Mets’ bullpen or the clutch hit. (Tyler Kepner did write a column about the game itself.)

What with all the teeth-gnashing about baseball’s sellout, it seemed the game itself vanished into the dark hole of likes and dislikes.

Not true. I caught most of that game on this strange medium called radio.

The Mets’ game was on WOR – 710 on the AM dial – described by Howie Rose and Josh Lewin. Rose, aware the game had vanished from the tube, offered the observation, “I think radio is here to stay.”

Home-town fans get used to their TV and radio broadcasters. When the national broadcast pre-empts a Met game, I opt for radio. Mets fans don’t need national drop-in experts telling them stuff they already know.

Plus, the sellout by #ShamelessMLB on Wednesday meant that Mets-TV addicts were forever deprived of possible weird dialogues such as the one that ensued during Thursday’s game in Washington, with Gary Cohen monitoring the banter between old teammates from 1986, Keith Hernandez and Ron Darling.

Darling to Hernandez on Good Old SNY: Were you this funny when we played together? You’re pretty funny.
Cohen: He was the Prince of Darkness back then.

That's what Mets fans expect – not twiddling of thumbs.

At least the t-shirt guy hasn’t sold all of baseball to Cambridge Analytica. (Memo to Mark Zuckerberg: when you are hauled into Congress next week, go find a suit. Play dressup.)
* * *
Speaking of Queens and baseball, my friend-the-writer, Rabbi Mendel Horowitz, has written about following baseball in Israel during Passover: Enjoy:

http://jewishjournal.com/opinion/232675/why-is-this-sport-different/

Brian Savin

4/5/2018 06:15:03 pm

I’m enjoying you again, George. Big time! This is the GV I’ve known. I hope Twitter picks up baseballl, because I dropped Facebook after being hacked through them multiple times. I share your love of baseball radio. I remember 40 years ago listening to a Red Sox game with an avid 90’s plus fan named George Soule. No TV reception in Cornwall. He was GS the consecutive 9th. The first of his name and line came over on the Mayflower. That’s baseball and American tradition.

George Vecsey

4/5/2018 08:22:46 pm

Brian: Wow. Not sure I ever heard of nine consecutive generations with a child with the same name. Traditional, indeed. Although, Marianne's research into her Lancashire ancestors and my ancient Leicestershire rellies indicates either a respect for tradition or a woeful lack of imagination (I am leaning toward the latter.)
Hold the thought about being happy with me again. I will disappoint you soon enough with the things I am thinking and muttering about the disturbed man in the White House. Soon! Best to you, G

Brian Savin

4/5/2018 08:41:42 pm

Try a martini first, George, then write something else! Our Buddy is doing great!

I truly enjoyed your latest. Thanks
Best
Brian
Ps. I also know, well, a continuous line of Standish. But almost all of them are James, not Miles.

George Vecsey

4/5/2018 08:59:29 pm

Brian, knowing you are a history buff, can I assume you have read Nathaniel Philbrick's great book about the Mayflower (including several great chapters on the voyage and landing itself, as nautical adventure)
He made Standish memorable as a stumpy, pugnacious dude, willing to fight rivals, assassinate unfriendly chiefs, and protect the more domestic members of the new colony.
Great book. GV
(This was my diatribe about T-Shirt Guy buying a ball game. Somehow we have wandered into a warrior of New England.) GV

Brian Savin

4/5/2018 09:13:43 pm

I don’t know Philbrick’s book, but will get it. Janet’s main male relative is John Howland. On the voyage over he fell overboard in a storm. He sank under water and his hand touched a halyard which he grabbed and pulled himself above water and was in turn pulled up on deck and rescued. Miracles do happen. Sometimes in elections and people without hope are saved.
Brian

Andy Tansey

4/5/2018 09:50:32 pm

I love the connection between Jerusalem and the Van Wyck, which Mom calls the Van Wicked because of Kew Interchange traffic delays on trips to Eddie’s Sweet Shop on Metropolitan Avenue in Forest Hills. Does watching baseball on the Sabbath result in as much guilt as a 10-year-old Yankee fan’s September ride on the 1969 Miracle Bandwagon does to this day? Seeing Swoboda’s catch on the radio in Sister Joan’s fifth grade class room. I see more innings on the radio than the tube these days.

Mendel

4/11/2018 06:23:41 am

Andy,

Action Bronson may be an aquired taste, but he shouts-out Eddie's Sweet Shop in this profanity-laced video at minute 7:15.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUxQeY2xmH0

Andy Tansey

4/14/2018 12:24:38 am

Thanks, Mendel: Never heard of Action Bronson before this. It is a shame that our culture has degraded to levels such as it, though this is no criticism of you. The knit in his brow belies a self-conscious insecurity. Understandable: if one cannot communicate without the use of such profane vulgarity, then one ought not communicate.

A couple of years ago, my mother and wife were there when Woody Allen came in with a crew to scope Eddie's for a shoot. (There are issues about him, too.) Mom always sits with her back to the door. My wife told her she should turn around and see who was there. It could have been an interesting conversation about their common Brooklyn roots, but (A) it is tough for her to turn around these days and (B) all Mom cared about was her ice cream.

George: Hope you saw that Zuck wore a suit.

George

4/6/2018 07:41:01 am

Andy: when Dale Mitchell took an obvious ball and the ump signaled a perfect game for Larsen, i saw it on a car radio in a parking lot at Hofstra. Thumbs up for radio. GV

Alan Rubin link

4/6/2018 11:48:36 am

George-You can do a blog just of the joys of listening to radio.

I remember in the pre-tv days listening to baseball and other sports on the radio. Before it was standard to cover away games, someone would do a play-by-play reading from a teletype, which was occasionally heard in the background. Some announcers were very dull, but others made the game come alive. Occasionally, the final score would be announced around the sixth or seven inning and the broadcast ended.

Mendel, an interesting book on soccer is, “Does Your Rabbi Know You're Here? The Story of English Football's Forgotten Tribe” by Anthony Clavane.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00MEMMZUA/ref=dp-kindle-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9M0ZmADQrug

A fun movie about a bar mitzvah that was scheduled on the same day as the 1956 World Cup in England because the family did not expect the home team to reach the finals.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/01/movies/01sixt.html

The Mayflower book was great and it also covers some history of the settlement of the Rensselaer/Albany area.

History is fascinating, especially when authors go several layers below the surface of the topic.

Sorry Brian, but we might be better off if our president had an understanding of history. There are many lessons from the past that give an insight to where this administration might be going.

Carol Zweck in her book "Mindset" explains how Enron collapsed because its CEO Jeff Skilling would not keep anyone on his board, or in key corporate positions, who did not agree with him. Jeff thought that things were going well until the day his company collapsed.

I sincerely wish success to any American president regardless of party, but I am deeply concerned about our government of unethical "yes-men/women".

Peter Kennedy link

4/6/2018 04:20:05 pm

Quite a fine rant, George! I, too, was bummed to learn of the MLB-enabled FB intervention. What a relief, yesterday, to see our Metsies face off against the Nationals on SNY. Sure it was a work day, but that's why iPads were invented, for a discreet Mets viewing experience in the middle of a weekday afternoon. It's the adult version of sneaking a transistor radio under the covers on a school night. And no less enjoyable. LGM, Peter

bruce

4/6/2018 07:42:50 pm

george,

i enjoy baseball on radio but only listen when i'm in my car.

jerry howarth was a pretty good play by play guy for toronto, but had to retire this year just before the season started due to health problems.

tom cheek and howarth did the play by play for years before cheek got cancer.

can't recall the first play by play guy but early wynn did the colour for the first few seasons.

he was awful.

as for the national guys moving in to do the games....it's worse in the great white north because they have to explain what toronto's like to the 'folks', make jokes about the cold--no winters in the usa--and give us baseball pointers.

you probably recall a few years ago in,i believe, the playoffs when a player ripped a line drive into the stands in toronto and the colour guy--can't remember his name--opined it was dangerous because, you know, canadians aren't used to that sort of thing. we kinda sit there jabbering away about igloos and stuff.

guess he didn't know the blue jays have been around since 1977 and toronto, vancouver and montreal had AAA ball for decades.

after getting god knows how many complaints, he apologized during the next game.

we also have this sport called hockey which routinely sends pucks flying into the crowds.

bruce

George Vecsey

4/7/2018 12:33:25 pm

Yeah, that 'splaining stuff to the Hinterlands can grow old. I will say that the Shulman- ABoone-Mendoza group was good, except that I wanted to hear the three Mets guys, two of them poking at Keith, etc.
Radio lives. Pete K and others recall falling asleep with night game....I can still hear Red Barber and Connie Desmond and cast with Brooklyn. Baseball great for long car hauls -- I heard 7th game of Braves-Twins WS en route to Florida, Bucky Dent taking a daughter to visit colleges, Welch striking out Reggie while driving home from Boston on a college visit. Those games could go on forever, far as I as concerned. GV

bruce

4/7/2018 03:40:00 pm

George,

i mentioned a while back that Shulman is from THE hinterlands so perhaps that's why he understands us so GOOD, eh.

your recall was faulty.

mr October never struck out.

homered every time he came up in the world series, didn't he?

bruce

Michael Green

4/7/2018 01:50:05 pm

Great as always, Mr. Vecsey. Howie Rose's comment reminds me of when Jack Buck was inducted into the Radio Hall of Fame: "Turn the radio on ... Television self-destructs."

bruce

4/7/2018 03:27:40 pm

George,

in the early 60s, i took my two transistor radio to school. stuck it my shirt pocket and sneaked (why is snuck acceptable now?) the earplug into my ear.

all day games, of course, in those days.

seem to remember Yankees/reds series.

also, remember listening to music. for some reason, 'the lion sleeps to night' sticks out.

we really are the hinterlands here in canuckistan.

so bad that marines from their base in distant buffalo in ny state--twin city of fort erie, Ontario across the river--marched into exhibition stadium in Taranna with the Canadian flag upside down.

you'd think they'd at least know the leaf was UPSIDE DOWN which might've been a hint there was something amiss.

MICHAEL--hadn't heard the buck comment. good one. liked jack.....don't like his son.

epalumbo2000@gmail.com

4/8/2018 11:45:31 am

Who can forget Vince Scully, as Snider walked from the on-deck circle to the batter's box: "And here comes The Duke!" And then, when he tagged one, "And there's a LONG drive, to DEEP right field . . . it's high . . . it's deep . . . forget it, it's GONE."

George

4/8/2018 01:25:58 pm

He'll always be the kid from Fordham to me.
They treated him with great respect, right out of WFUV.

Gene Palumbo

4/9/2018 12:54:31 am

"we kinda sit there jabbering away about igloos and stuff."

Great line, Bruce.

bruce

4/9/2018 01:31:59 am

gene,

thanks.

it's also rumoured that indoor plumbing is comin' soon.

thoughts and prayers would be appreciated.

bruce

Brian Savin

4/9/2018 10:59:45 am

Last night was another good reason to support baseball radio. The Mets were on the ropes all night and into the morning and the TV light glared and I couldn't snooze during commercials. I liked the Mets on radio. Gotta figure out how to find an Internet radio broadcast with comfortable wireless earplugs. Hopefully, the announcers will be old-school enough to wake me for the exciting parts.

Calloway is an interesting new subspecies of baseball manager. He does weird things but he's seemingly convinced the entire team to buy into what he does with each of them. Simply Me(t)smerizing.

Comments are closed.

QUOTES
Measuring Covid Deaths, by David Leonhardt. July 17, 2023. NYT online.
The United States has reached a milestone in the long struggle against Covid: The total number of Americans dying each day — from any cause — is no longer historically abnormal….

After three horrific years, in which Covid has killed more than one million Americans and transformed parts of daily life, the virus has turned into an ordinary illness.

The progress stems mostly from three factors:
First, about three-quarters of U.S. adults have received at least one vaccine shot.
Second, more than three-quarters of Americans have been infected with Covid, providing natural immunity from future symptoms. (About 97 percent of adults fall into at least one of those first two categories.)
Third, post-infection treatments like Paxlovid, which can reduce the severity of symptoms, became widely available last year.
“Nearly every death is preventable,” Dr. Ashish Jha, who was until recently President Biden’s top Covid adviser, told me. “We are at a point where almost everybody who’s up to date on their vaccines and gets treated if they have Covid, they rarely end up in the hospital, they almost never die.”

That is also true for most high-risk people, Jha pointed out, including older adults — like his parents, who are in their 80s — and people whose immune systems are compromised. “Even for most — not all but most —immuno-compromised people, vaccines are actually still quite effective at preventing against serious illness,” he said. “There has been a lot of bad information out there that somehow if you’re immuno-compromised that vaccines don’t work.”

That excess deaths have fallen close to zero helps make this point: If Covid were still a dire threat to large numbers of people, that would show up in the data.

One point of confusion, I think, has been the way that many Americans — including we in the media — have talked about the immuno-compromised. They are a more diverse group than casual discussion often imagines.

Most immuno-compromised people are at little additional risk from Covid — even people with serious conditions, such as multiple sclerosis or a history of many cancers. A much smaller group, such as people who have received kidney transplants or are undergoing active chemotherapy, face higher risks.

Covid’s toll, to be clear, has not fallen to zero. The C.D.C.’s main Covid webpage estimates that about 80 people per day have been dying from the virus in recent weeks, which is equal to about 1 percent of overall daily deaths.

The official number is probably an exaggeration because it includes some people who had virus when they died even though it was not the underlying cause of death. Other C.D.C. data suggests that almost one-third of official recent Covid deaths have fallen into this category. A study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases came to similar conclusions.

Dr. Shira Doron, the chief infection control officer at Tufts Medicine in Massachusetts, told me that “age is clearly the most substantial risk factor.” Covid’s victims are both older and disproportionately unvaccinated. Given the politics of vaccination, the recent victims are also disproportionately
Republican and white.

Each of these deaths is a tragedy. The deaths that were preventable — because somebody had not received available vaccines and treatments — seem particularly tragic. (Here’s a Times guide to help you think about when to get your next booster shot.)
***

From the great Maureen Dowd:

As I write this, I’m in a deserted newsroom in The Times’s D.C. office. After working at home for two years during Covid, I was elated to get back, so I could wander around and pick up the latest scoop.
But in the last year, there has been only a smattering of people whenever I’m here, with row upon row of empty desks. Sometimes a larger group gets lured in for a meeting with a platter of bagels."

--- Dowd writes about the lost world of journalists clustered in newsrooms at all hours, smoking, drinking, gossipping, making phone calls, typing, editing.
***
"Putting out the paper," we called it.
Much more than nostalgia.
---https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/29/opinion/journalism-newsroom.html

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