Posted on 04/13/2002 6:40:04 AM PDT by Cable225
Flipped on the highlights the other night, saw Bruce Bochy sitting in the dugout wearing camouflage and immediately wondered if I’d mistakenly stumbled onto the Duck Hunting Channel.
Poor guy. Looked ridiculous sitting there all decked out with nothing to shoot. If Tony Gwynn had any reservations about his decision to retire, you can bet they were dashed when he saw what he would have had to wear for his home opener.
If you missed it, the Padres came out Monday wearing camouflage uniforms. San Diego is a big military town, see, and you have to keep up with current trends to make sure you’re reaching your target audience. They’ve done it several times before, but never so obviously. Or early. There’s a big difference between a late-season promotion and the home opener.
Let’s just say the sentiment is fine, the execution preposterous.
But at the risk, once again, of staring through the peephole and finding John Ashcroft, when is enough enough? And not only that, but isn’t there a reasonable issue to be raised here when it comes to the role of professional sports in the greater scheme of things?
To put it more bluntly, why is there an obligation on every ballgame to address larger issues, like war, death and remembrance?
Bud Selig issued the edict before the season to every big-league club: Continue with God Bless America during the seventh-inning stretch. Last year, for the post-Sept. 11 games, fine. Sing the song, sit down and play the game. But now it comes across as phony and contrived. They don’t sing it between the third and fourth quarters of NBA games, and it doesn’t make that league any less patriotic.
Major League Baseball has become worse than the Olympics. Seriously. Everyone was worried about the Salt Lake Games becoming a raging storm of jingoism in the wake of Sept. 11 and the onset of the War on Terror, but if you were there you really didn’t see it.
Now they’re stopping games all the time to pay tribute. I don’t know why, but a game between the Giants and Dodgers was stopped for a moment of silence in the fifth inning, with a 2-2 count to Mark Grudzielanek. Why? I’m not sure. One minute I was watching a game, the next I was looking at Dusty Baker anxiously but dutifully placing his cap over his heart while the stadium fell silent.
Then they went back to business.
Fastball up and away. Full count.
Of course, if you question this, it sounds as if you’re trivializing the enormity of the tragedy. In reality, though, all this singing and all these forced tributes are turning a tragedy into trivia.
I let him know that pieces of trash like this always make me glad I don't have a paid subscription to this magazine.
Sports Illustrated is bad, ESPN the Magazine is far worse.
On a personal note, this is my first "full-article" post (it only took four years!).
Saw part of the game he was talking about and liked the uniforms. This writer would have had a fit if he had gone to the KC Royals opening game. Very patriotic. Red white and blue bunting everywhere. KCFD presented the colors. Soldier just returned from fighting threw out the first pitch, 100 foot long flag unfurled in the infield, eagle flew from high in right field to the pitchers mound and a flyover from a stealth bomber.
On a retaining wall by the fountians in the outfield are now painted 2 large American flags with "We Stand United" between them. Mr Keown can go soak his head.
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