A Proper Lesson in Baseball Etiquette

It is with a sad heart that I write this next blog, as the beloved Brewers have now officially been swept by the Chicago Cubs. However, I have one bone to pick with the Cubs and that is their fans.

I don’t like the Cubs, and I am very upset that they have won 4 games against the Brew Crew over the past 4 days. On the other hand, I respect their baseball team and the talent they have on the field. What I don’t respect and is flat out annoying is their fans.

It is one thing, to be obnoxious and proud of your team while at Wrigley Field, your own stadium. But it is at a-whole-nother level when you are rude and belligerent as a visiting fan at another team’s stadium. Drink a little bit less, sit quietly, cheer when necessary, and enjoy the game, but I think that if you are a visiting fan (no matter where you are) you have to be respectful that you are in the home fans’ “territory.”

If you are going to pick a fight with the opposite team’s fans, you have to be at your own stadium.

If you are going to wear offensive t-shirts insulting the other team, you have to be at your own stadium.

If you are going be so drunk you can’t stand up and you bump into everyone all of the time, you have to be at your own stadium.

These aren’t rules; it should just be common knowledge of attending a baseball game at another field. There is a certain etiquette you should follow, and everyone will respect you.

Unfortunately, being a Wisconsinite living in Chicago for the summer, I have the obligation of seeing about 2,000 Cubs’ fans a day (about 1 in 4 people I see are wearing Cubs paraphernalia). However, if the Brewers were in town and I went to Wrigley to see the game, I would promise to be as respectful as possible. At the same time, part of the problem is a Brewers’ fan will leave Cubs’ fans alone at Miller Park, but if you are a blatant Brew fan at Wrigley, you have a decent chance of being mugged.

Point is that there are too many Cubs’ fans who have no respect for anything else other than their team. I seem to remember it being 100 years since they last won a World Series. Here are some things that happened since the last Cubs’ victory:

- The Titanic sank
- The prohibition of alcohol
- The assembly line was created
- The Model-T Ford was created
- World War I
- World War II (that’s both World War’s)
- Women gained the right to vote
- Television was invented
- And much, much more

Cubs fans, stick to what you know: Stay at Wrigley Field and cheer for your beloved Cubs there. But if you come to another park, watch your damn mouth.

Wow

Wow, what a busy week! It’s been a full 7 days since the last lovely piece of writing…and unfortunately this one is not going to be so wonderful.

Instead of taking the time to review something that sounds good, I am going to suggest a couple of things that you should check out real briefly. (This weekend is crazy too: friends visiting from Iowa, 21st b-day on Sunday at midnight, a Brewers vs. Cubs game on Tuesday, and then some cool kid visiting from Vienna, VA the following weekend).

Anyway – Friday Fresh F.F.F…..



Band: OAR
New Album “All Sides”
Performance Date: July 24, 2008; over the lunch hour on Michigan Ave.

The lead singer, Marc Roberge, and guitarist, Richard On, played a brief acoustic set at 401 N. Michigan Avenue promoting their concert that night at the Charter One Pavillion at Northerly Island in Chicago. The quick set was wonderful and a great break from work.

Check out their new album. I am going to buy it ASAP. And they are awesome.

Band: JJ Grey and Mofro
Performance Date: July 26, 2008; the Taste of Lincoln Festival, Chicago

With 3 buddies in hand, I will be heading to the corner of Fullerton and Lincoln to check out one of the best blues bands that rural Florida has to offer. Check out their albums, “Lochloosa,” “Blackwater,” and “Country Ghetto.” They are fabulous and one of the best bands to see live, ever.

Friday's Fresh Frequency - Band: Smooch-E-Pup

Band Name:

Smooch-E-Pup

www.myspace.com/smoochepup
www.purevolume.com/smoochepup

I decided I am going to waste away my Friday blogs with a look at new and exciting music artists or something along those lines. Sorry about the terrible title, I had to think of something (it’s decent enough isn’t it?). For this week, I’ll be taking a look at the band “Smooch-E-Pup” and their interesting take on music, and in particular looking at the 4 songs posted on their Myspace website, as well as the 3 songs posted on their Purevolume website.

These young musicians hailing from Cedar Rapids, IA are some of the most unique artists you’ll probably never listen to. Featuring Cooper Harwood on the guitar, mandolin, MC, and other various instruments, Smooch-E-Pup is primarily known in the CR area as a fun-loving group that practices 6 times a month (only in the summer) and plays 2-3 “shows” a year. The other two members of the band are Matt Rowbotham (who left the group in 2005) and Kyle Griffin, who attempts to play drums, keyboards, backup vocals, and drum machine.

The group now solely consists of Harwood and Griffin, and the two spend their time recording terrible tunes surrounding often around current events and celebrity mishaps. On their Myspace website, the songs “Lindsay Lohan” and “Sean Connery” could not differ any more than they already do. “Lohan” is a look at the pop culture princess and her addictions to cocaine, but Harwood sings about how lovely she is in his mind anyway. “Connery” is the maybe the duo’s most serious and sentimental song as it compares their loved ones to themselves, “If you were a corn dog I’d be your mustard; if you were a pie crust I’d be your custard.” Though both songs also refer to pop culture icons (“Connery” mentions both Sean Connery and the WuTang Clan), “Lohan” demonstrates the duo’s creative and humorous side whereas “Connery” can show how heartfelt Smooch-E-Pup lyrics can really be.

The other tracks, though not as catchy, have clever lyrics and will leave you at least moderately entertained. WARNING: Do not listen to “Devil Doodle Do” unless you have a really good reason, and do not listen to it in the presence of young children. It is unnecessarily vulgar, but funny.

If you feel like being nostalgic with the band and listening to their oldest recordings, listen to either “Don’t Buy Your Blow On eBay” (on purevolume) or “Girls Like Us” (on Myspace) to get the band’s first two recorded songs ever. Both include former member Matt Rowbotham on the microphone rap/singing about whatever he felt like.

I suggest you check out all 7 songs (or at least 6 out of 7) because you should be at least entertained. The musical talent may not be there, but the witty sets of lyrics will be!

Celebrity Worship and the Internet

I had a fairly uneventful morning with my internship this morning, though it ended up picking up significantly this afternoon, and found myself surfing the internet looking at virtually nothing. This little piece of writing will I think be particularly interesting when compared to The Scholastic Scribe’s blog on Tuesday talking about the reliability of the internet. As I looked through piles and piles of junk on the internet, I realized how much the World Wide Web is focused around famous people and their lives. This became a topic of interest to me when I started to think about all of the false reports relating to Mr. Brett Favre and his recent “coming-out-of-retirement-controversy.”

Just last week, I sat at my computer reading an ESPN blog (somewhat official) talking about Brett Favre news and whether or not he is going to come back/should come back/what would happen if he did come back. Below this were thousands of comments from internet users giving their personal opinions on the matter. Now, I like to read what other people think and I try to give them the benefit of the doubt when they say stupid things, but when people go to a ESPN blog about Brett Favre maybe coming back and turn it into a “Tom Brady VS. Brett Favre Dual: Which QB is Better,” I got a little steamed.

One user decided to equate Brett Favre’s success solely with his fan base and his popularity. I should clear something up, I am a huge Packers fan, and as virtually every fan of the Pack until the recent weeks, Brett Favre is a wonderful wonderful man and has done much to make our team great. A friend of mine even edited his “religious views” on Facebook to read, “Brett Favre’s smile once brought a puppy back to life.” I do understand that Brett Favre is worshiped by his fans, but doesn’t he deserve to be? Is he really comparable to LiLo (I read that as a nickname for Lindsay Lohan and decided it was necessary to use) or BriSpears (I made that one up)? In no way are the fans who think Brett Favre should come back as crazy about him as the rest of the world is about watching 20 year old girls get wasted and make dumb mistakes.

Quick change of pace, my personal opinion is that Brett Favre loves the game of football and realized he made a mistake. Did the Packers screw up with forcing him to make a quick decision? Maybe. Did Brett Favre screw up and communicate poorly with the management and his teammates? Maybe. But now what should they do about it? Let Brett come back and play for the Packers if he wants. Sucks to be Aaron Rodgers, but the two of them should face each other consistently in training camp, and whoever performs better in practice and in pre-season games gets the starting spot. But don’t go with the Bears’ technique of switching your starter every 2 games when they suck, that never worked for anyone; however, splitting time between the two of them when the team has different needs in different situations could be useful and effective.


Back to my fascination with the things that are posted on the internet:

More or less, the internet is just filled with bullshit and it is hilarious. Am I guilty of looking at that crap? Of course. And if you deny it, you are a liar. Everyone has at least some sort of guilty pleasure in finding out about the lives of our favorite actor, musician, athlete, whatever; who hasn’t heard about Brangelina’s twins? So, it sucks that the www is full of lies and nonsense, but as long as you the reader knows that it is a lie and largely embellished (that is the second time I have used that word on this blog, and I like it a lot) and strays greatly from the truth, then so what.

Just a suggestion: If you so choose to write a paper on the life of a celebrity or something for one of your courses, citing http://www.splashnewsonline.com/ would probably be a bad idea.

An Argument Against the Abolition of Steroids

Don’t worry, I will try not to use any more alliteration in the rest of this wonderful work of writing (I think I already fulfilled the quota, I know they are A’s but I think it should still count).

I’m writing this in response to the 79th All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium that was played last night and lasted for nearly 5 hours.

As I sat in the over-priced and TV-filled Chicago “ESPN-Zone” with my sister and friend watching the game, the only thing we talked about was how the game was so boring. In the first 5 innings, only two exciting plays occurred, a solo homerun by the Rockies’ Matt Holliday, and Albert Pujols of the Cardinals getting thrown out at second base by Ichiro after hitting the ball all the way to the right field wall (damn, he cannot run). The National League led the game nearly the whole way until their relief pitching (even the All-Star relief pitchers are capable of blowing it) gave up a two-run homerun to J.D. Drew of the Red Sox, and an RBI Double to Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays (more famous for his eerily similar name to the desperate housewife). The game lasted for almost 5 hours, and after all of the exciting American League action late in the first 9 innings, the game went to a stale defensive battle until the bottom of the 15th inning when a sacrifice fly allowed the final run to score.

Boring, boring, and boring. All I could think about as I watched the first 7 innings and the last 5 innings (the middle 3 were okay) was: how much more exciting would this game be if players were allowed to use steroids?

Think about it, baseball could be even more thrilling and exciting than it already is! Every player can swing for the fences, the scores of games would go up, and pitchers could throw 100+ mph; I think it is a great addition to the game.

Think about it this way, if there is a drug that is available and can make a person stronger, add that to their already prevalent athleticism and ability and that person is now a super-athlete. I say, if it is available, why not let everyone use it? It only makes the game more exciting, and more enjoyable. Every player that used them could hit 40+ home runs a season? The new home run record would be closer to 80-90 home runs in a season!

“But dude, it’s ruining a classic game. What about Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron and Willie Mays?”

What about ‘em! If they had steroids back in the day, some of those guys would have doped up too. Yes, Hank Aaron lost his record to Barry Bonds who is viewed as one of the worst things to go through baseball – but why? I do not support Barry Bonds in any way and it is very unfortunate that his record has to be tainted, but all of that is because steroids right now are illegal. Of course there will still be the negative image surrounding you as a player if you use, but that will go away in 20-30 years. Eventually, players will be able to use steroids without any sort of hassle from the public, and the game of baseball will no longer have an All-Star Game that lasts five-hours and ends up to be a 4 to 3 game. The point is the game is changing and the world is changing; if the technology is available to make a type of entertainment more entertaining, why would we not buy into it? If your iPhone is a year old and there is a new one coming out that has features 10X cooler than your last, why not get a new one?

“But dude, it’s cheating!”

It isn’t cheating if it becomes legal and players are allowed to use dope. I do think that there should be some sort of penalty…no that’s the wrong word…some sort of situation that a steroid-using-player must be put in if they choose to use steroids. Here are some new rules for steroid-users:

1) They must declare that they have been using steroids and specify the kind of drug they are using. The league must be made aware of what exactly it is they are using to enhance their strength, so that they can be monitored and regulated to a certain extent.

2) By declaring that they have been using steroids, the athlete must take a pay cut, I say as big as 25%. Yeah, they may be the best player on the field due to their super human strength, so you think he should be getting more money than everyone else, but as of now, steroids still have that negative taboo surrounding them, so we have to compromise a little bit.

3) Players must stop use of steroids if they are beginning to have significant side effects or health problems. These things are dangerous, you have to be careful.

4) If they break some major record that has been around longer than when the legality of steroids came into effect, their new record must have a “*” by it, to show that they broke an old record during the new age of steroid use. If they break a post-steroid use record, no “*” is needed.

5) Players using steroids must showboat after every homerun they hit. If you’re going to use steroids to entertain the people, you have to entertain the people by shakin’ your thang, too.

If Albert Pujols can start hitting 60+ home runs a season, Brandon Webb can pitch a complete game every outing, Ben Sheets can throw a 94 mph “off-speed” pitch and a 104 mph fastball, and the Red Sox can beat the Yankees 22-19 at Fenway, wouldn’t you want to watch? The All-Star Game at Yankee Stadium last night bored so many baseball fans that several probably quit caring today, and everyone else who normally doesn’t watch baseball but thought they would give the All-Star Game a try, now reconfirmed their notion that baseball is a past-time and is now a boring, boring, boring sport. Add steroids to the mix, and I guarantee the number of sold-out games at the Nationals new cleverly named stadium “Nationals Park” will increase from 0 out of 80 to at least 7 out of 80.

I had this conversation with my sister and buddy yesterday at the restaurant, and as I continued to expand my argument and embellish it even further with ludicrous claims and new rules for baseball, I decided it was a worth while statement.

First Time "Blogger"

This s a new experience for me. I have never really gotten into the obsession with reading about the views of the world through other people's eyes on the internet. However, through my lovely internship this summer, the amount of free time I end up having between projects and assignments has allowed me the opportunity to surf the web looking for something to entertain my hours with.

Now, I don't know how often people even look at these things or care about what they read...but the funniest part about this particular blog is that I was introduced to it through one of my closest friends, whose mom has a blog that I have read a couple of times. Strange connection, but at least it gives me something to do and somewhere to work on my writing (because internet blogging is clearly comparable to 20-page research papers for my "English Romanticism" course).

I also realize that this particular entry is going to be extremely boring to read...I am even getting bored writing it, as it has no useful or interesting information - but I did figure that I wouldn't just start writing about some random topic on my first go at it.

I hope this was at least moderately enjoyable for the 1-3 people who maybe experienced it, and when my day gets boring again tomorrow and the day after I will work a little harder at making this thing a little bit more interesting.