Best new favorite album: Goldfrapp, Black Cherry Best new favorite band: Gnarls Barkley Best new favorite album by an old favorite band: Cornelius, Sensuous Best website: Netvibes Runners up: Tumblr, Facebook, Pandora Most overrated website: Second Life Best print magazine: Washington Monthly Best online magazine: Slate Best bay area hike with dogs: Phoenix Lake Trail, Mt. Tamalpais Watershed, Marin County, CA Worst natural disaster: SoCal Wildfires Best short-film compilation DVD series: Wolphin Best new favorite nonprofit organization: The Long Now Foundation Best new hobby: Skiing Best board game: Polarity Best major life change: getting engaged Best photo:
Obviously I'm biased, but I think this is just silly. Marc Ecko claims he's using the ball as a spark for serious public debate (I'm guessing the mountain of publicity it's getting him also may have been a consideration). Here's his opinion on the matter:
Ecko, who is letting the public decide what to do with Bonds' record-setting baseball, said he had voted to brand the historic sphere with an asterisk that would suggest the Giants slugger used steroids on his way to breaking Hank Aaron's career homer mark. But Ecko said Major League Baseball is to blame for Bonds' predicament because it ignored signs for years that players were using performance-enhancing drugs.
"The notion that a system in Major League Baseball kind of knew that this was going on, and kind of played ostrich, and then indicts its players for wanting to achieve great things and earn big bucks - I more have a bugaboo with a system that fosters and actually rewards unnatural behavior," Ecko said in a phone interview.
I actually share Ecko's opinion that MLB itself is mostly to blame for the face it's lost over this issue. But regardless of what you think of Bonds and the impact steroids have had on the last few decades of professional sports, the record is what it is. The ball is now a part of baseball's history, and it would be a shame to see it defaced or destroyed simply on the whims of the internet masses -- who, in my experience, cannot always be trusted to have the best judgement.
Anyway, here's a thought I had at work today while doing a podcast of this program for FORA: a century from now, when only the people playing pro sports are those whose parents could afford to buy them, in vitro, the genetic makeup of athletic supermen, will steroid abusers of our day still be seen as cheaters?
The whole at-bat, from my seat in upper deck section 315, row 13, seat 19. I don't care if anyone reading this is a baseball fan or not. This was simply one of the coolest things I've ever personally witnessed.
For those of you who don't follow baseball, opening day was yesterday. For those of you who do (anybody?), here are my postseason predictions:
NL West: LA Dodgers NL Central: St. Louis Cardinals NL East: Atlanta Braves NL Wild Card: Philadelphia Phillies
AL West: Oakland Athletics AL Central: Minnesota Twins AL East: NY Yankees AL Wild Card: Boston Red Sox
NLCS: Phillies over Braves ALCS: A's over Yankees
World Series: A's over Phillies
Yup, this is Oakland's year. For the record, I think the Giants will finish fourth in the NL West.
Speaking of the Giants, I'm currently reading Game of Shadows, the controversial new book from the SF Chronicle journalists who uncovered the BALCO steroids scandal. It's a great read, extremely well written in a narrative style and meticulously researched. Most compelling is the way the authors set up Barry as a figure straight out of a Greek tragedy; I can't read about him sulking around the clubhouse, the narcissistic superstar playing only for his own sense of pride, without thinking of mighty Achilles brooding in a tent somewhere outside Troy. I have a feeling that both fans and non-fans alike can find something worthwhile about this book, so check it out if you get the chance.
All right, no more blog deadlines. You think I would have learned by now, but...no. I've got a two-page love fest for Capote that I'll finish up sooner or later, but blogging about the Oscars is like, so three weeks ago. Besides, I don't really have much else to add to the discussion. But I will say this: Crash? Ok, I didn't comment about this back on March 6th, because – confession time again – I never even got around to watching the movie until just last night. Now that I've seen it, though, for the record...you've got to be kidding me. Munich wasn't great either, but at least it had some decent action scenes. Crash?!? Nice cinematography, fine editing. Also, piece of crap. Possibly the worst screenplay of any movie I've watched in the last year. That's my review. Barf.
Anyway, I've just gotten back from a week in San Diego, where I caught the semifinals and final of the first-ever World Baseball Classic. These pictures are just over a week old, but since I forgot my SD card reader I had to wait until I got back to SF before I could post them on the blog. So here we go, fashionably late as usual:
The Cuban team visits the mound in their semifinal game against the Dominican Republic. In this photo, those little people-shaped-dots show Dominicans Miguel Tejada on second, Albert Pujols at first, and David Ortiz at the plate, wating to bat. For those of you who don't follow baseball, just trust me that you're looking at something very, very cool. From several hundred feet away. (Click the photo for a slightly larger rendition.)
Later that evening, at Korea's semifnal game with Japan. This photo features me doing my passable impersonation of a Korean baseball fan (you can't see it here, but I've got a beer in my left hand). I think I was the only white guy in the stadium rooting for Korea. I did notice, however, several dozen whiteboy anime fans, apparently all taking a break from hanging out in comic book stores to show up and cheer for the Japanese. Incidentally, none of them were with girls.
Boyne patriotically waves his Korean flag, even as a series of Japanese homeruns literally causes the PETCO Park scoreboard to burst into flames.
After Japan wins the final 10-6 over Cuba, the Japanese contingent takes the field. I don't have anything to say about this photo except...see those little pieces of confetti-looking stuff all over the diamond? That's what's left of the Cubans. Seriously. These Japanese guys were out to win. Also, that's a big flag.
You like that? I'm clever. Seriously, that one will be up today. As in, Thursday, not Wednesday. Just like I said it would.
In the meantime...I doubt if anyone reading this thinks this is nearly as cool as I do, but the first World Baseball Classic starts today in Japan. If you're not familiar with it, the WBC is the first of what promoters are hoping will become a sort of baseball World Cup: 16 national teams playing a three-stage tournament for the title of "World Champion," the intention being to re-play the whole thing every four years from here on out. I've got special interest in the WBC because I'll be at the semifinal and final games in San Diego, March 18 and 20.
The first game will be broadcast on tape-delay from Tokyo, 1:30 AM tomorrow morning on ESPN 2 (10:30 PM tonight on the West Coast). Korea v. Tiawan. You know you want it.
TV schedules for the rest of the tournament can be found here.
It's official: the San Francisco Giants now play in AT&T Park. While I've been known to have bitched about this sort of thing in the past, it's important to note that whatever the name, Pac Bell / SBC / AT&T Park is the first baseball stadium in the last forty years to have been built entirely through private funding. Considering that most professional sports teams tend to threaten relocation unless the public coughs up a good deal of the construction costs for their venues, I'm happy to let the Giants' owners call the thing whatever the hell they want to.
$8.50 for a 16 oz. beer, though...that I can take issue with. Greedy fuckers.
(Yes, that's a real mascot.)
Hope everybody had a great year.
