Selig sucks......

by REDLEG5 on Mar 30, 2008 9:15 PM EDT

Check out this link.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/content/oh/story/sports/pro/reds/2008/03/30/ddn033108audible.html

I was telling my Dad about this today and the here it is. That damn eastern sports network!!!!!!!!!

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that is a great piece

Hope Springs Eternal! Go Reds

by Caleb on Mar 30, 2008 10:59 PM EDT reply actions

I'm not from Cincinnati but I don't see what the big deal is.

Every first afternoon of every season you've got a guaranteed home game immediately preceded by a giant community hug in the streets of downtown. With clowns in motorcycle sidecars and leprechauns on firetrucks and stuff. Kids skip school. People get drunk in the morning. There are color photos in the next day's Tri-State area newspapers. There's the tradition. It's good stuff.

Does anybody really think that the rest of the country is going to stop what they're doing tomorrow afternoon and turn on their televisions and stare open-mouthed at the Yankees and wonder aloud, "Hey, why no coverage of the traditonal festivities in Cincinnati?!"

That shining and concentrated exclusivity of hosting allll of America's Opening Day is gone. It's been gone. Consider John McSherry's dramatic passing both the omen and the coda.

But it's not a bad thing. Not at all. It's a good thing. Major League Baseball has moved on to broader horizons while ya'll have just kept on doing what you do. A lot of fun will continue to be had by all. Evidently, St. Louis is jealous. Party on!

(And Chick Ludwig trying to aid his position bemoaning "Sunday night garbage" and casting wistfully xenophobic shame upon international celebrations of our favorite game with quotes from "an editor" of the Sporting News is kinda like asking my dog if his walks were longer and his life was better before the two or three kids came along.)

by Fat Vegas Alan on Mar 30, 2008 11:27 PM EDT reply actions

I agree with you about Sunday night

The Reds aren't a big deal nationally. Baseball has been about business as much as it has been about tradition since the 1880s.

I would like to say that I think the word "xenophobia" is being tossed around too liberally in discussing these writers who are against the season opening in other countries. There have been xenophobic takes on the issue (Furman Bisher), but I don't think the daily news opinion piece fits that description.

I'm not sure there's any other way for the MLB to play meaningful games overseas other than the way they've set it up this season, but I think it's a legitimate point to say that MLB should open its season in North America.

If the EPL decided to open its season in the Meadowlands, we enlightened bunch would probably bemoan our rapacious capitalism that coaxed a country's favorite sport abroad. Would British criticisms of such be necessarily ":xenophobic"?

Plus ca change...

by Man Mountain on Mar 31, 2008 11:54 AM EDT up reply actions

The EPL is looking to play league games in America

Not for opening weekend, I don't think, but still have a regular fixture. Something akin to the Giants-Dolphins game in London last year.

The response has not been enthusiastic.

by Brendanukkah on Mar 31, 2008 12:01 PM EDT up reply actions

I know

that's why I chose the example.

The criticisms that I've seen in the Times and the Guardian have not been xenophobic, though I'm sure there were such reactions in England. But they have generally started from the position of "our league, our game." My point is that I think EPL fans would have a legitimate gripe about a mid-season fixture abroad, not to mention a season-opening fixture.

Arguments that begin from the standpoint of "our league, our game" can be xenophobic, but aren't of necessity xenophobic. I've seen a few criticisms around the web that seem a little quick on the draw in this regard.

Plus ca change...

by Man Mountain on Mar 31, 2008 1:30 PM EDT up reply actions

That's fair.

I haven't read anything else about it. (But I will now.)

I realize that the word has a certain sting to it. (I tried muting it with a somewhat gentler adverb.) And I'd agree with you that the DDN rant is not xenophobic from top to bottom. But when one sees the word "shameful" practically underlining the words "Mexico, Puerto Rico and Japan," one can sense Ludwig pounding a certain drumbeat. I think he's yelling exactly what he knows his readers want to hear.

by Fat Vegas Alan on Mar 31, 2008 1:20 PM EDT up reply actions

Isn't he on the Bengals beat anyway?

Why's he writing about baseball?

by Brendanukkah on Mar 31, 2008 1:28 PM EDT up reply actions

Evidently because he bumped into an editor of The Sporting News.

by Fat Vegas Alan on Mar 31, 2008 1:34 PM EDT up reply actions

Faux opening day

No doubt Bud Selig will declare the Japan Series (does anyone know who won those games anyway?) and Sunday night's game a success, as King Bud has graciously delivered his baseball to the peasant people. Thanks, Bud!

by Brian B on Mar 30, 2008 11:32 PM EDT reply actions

I agree

There's a fine line between forward-thinking and prositution when it comes to marketing baseball. I think screwing with opening day (evidenced by my venemous post on my blog today) falls closer to prositution.

BigRedLatrine.com ... News that flunks the smell test

by bigredlatrine on Mar 31, 2008 7:55 PM EDT up reply actions

I don't really have my shorts in a bunch

over the Sunday night opener anymore, although I did when it first happened. Marge did not take it at all well, as I remember.

Nice McSherry reference, though Alan...that could really serve as a turning point for this situation.

Maybe I'll feel the same about the Japan/International Flavor du Jour Series in time, but I can tell you that even though I have to follow those games because I am in a fantasy league, I don't much care for them.

Even though I recognize what the author of the piece is trying to say, he comes across more like Zell Miller (or Dana Carvey's Grumpy Old Man) than anything else.

"I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball" - Pete Rose

by Officer Dibble on Mar 30, 2008 11:42 PM EDT reply actions