Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

Serious question - in a secret ballot do you think the athletes of the MLB, NBA or NFL would vote to make Joe Biden the head of their players' associations or unions? Honestly do you think with their own financial well-being in the balance they would vote to elect Joe Biden as their leader of their unions?... How people view me... "Sir, there is nothing which has yet been contrived by man, by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern." - Samuel Johnson. I really miss going out to a bar... I wonder if on his deathbed it pissed Christopher Hitchens off that Henry Kissinger would outlive him. My guess is that Hitchens made peace with his situation but I always wonder... I want this painting... Saw that Bill Simmons was trending on Twitter and it turns out it is because of a lack of diversity at The Ringer (read the whole Twitter thread). Simmons has become increasingly political on his podcasts which has made them largely unlistenable. Zero black editors and zero full-time black writers covering either the NBA or the NFL reinforces the dictum of watch what a person does not what they say. It will be interesting if he goes the sackcloth and ashes route or goes into hiding like his friend Jimmy Kimmel. Don't get me wrong I give Simmons tons of credit for his success and that of The Ringer but his constant virtue signaling makes this schadenfreude train wreck tough to turn away from. I'm sure Bill is confused by all this I mean didn't people listen to his podcast with Jalen Rose? Somewhere Kyrie Irving is chuckling...

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- This makes me sad. The last candlepin bowling alley in Worcester is closing for good.

- Ernest Hemingway on symbolism in The Old Man and the Sea.

- How to plan your day like Marcus Aurelius

- Wow - Joe Rogan bringing his podcast exclusively to Spotify. This really does seem similar to Howard Stern moving to Sirius XM.

- And speaking of Spotify and podcasts - an update on Bill Simmons and The Ringer

- Great Robert Parrish / Michael Jordan story

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- Spotify pays $250 million for Bill Simmons' The Ringer

- Betelgeuse may go supernova (selfishly I want to see a supernova)

- Jeez - Scotland cut down almost 14 million trees to make way for windmills during a 10-year period.

- Outside magazine's best hikes in all 50 states

- If Pete Buttigieg is the Democratic nominee for President then there could be an historic exodus of black voters from the Democratic Party.

Linky Links

Stuff I found interesting or amusing and thought I'd share.

- The Earth could be heading towards a "mini-ice age"as the Sun enters a decades long Grand Solar Minimum. The scientists saying the Earth is warming must be pissed at this news.

- How awesome would this be if it were true!

- Spotify is buying Bill Simmons The Ringer.

- Hollywood icon Kirk Douglas passes away aged 103. I did not know that Douglas hired Stanley Kubrick to direct Spartacus. If the Golden Age of Hollywood was the 1940's and 50's then Kirk Douglas is the last of that breed. If it also includes the 60's then Sean Connery and Clint Eastwood are still kicking.

- Steven Pressfield: Resistance = Fear

- Thomas Mann's American Democracy Lecture Tour. A bit of history that I was unaware of. Agree wholeheartedly with the idea that our democracy and history need to be cared for but I find it ironic that the author states "It is a lesson we are in dire need of today as we watch democracy slip away in Trump's America." Whereas those on the right would argue "It is a lesson we are in dire need of today as we watch democracy slip away as the Democratic party embraces socialism." Maybe the fears of both sides can help protect and defend the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and our historic legacy. (HT The Happy Curmudgeon)

The NBA and China

First off let me say that I really feel for Darryl Morey. He made what he thought was a simple Tweet of support for friends who live in Hong Kong. Then he quickly found himself in the center of a maelstrom of controversy. I completely understand why he deleted his Tweet of support for Hong Kong and apologized. Not sure how I would have reacted if a seven word Tweet of mine suddenly put billions of dollars of revenue in question for my employers.

Second - two quotes keep popping up in my head when I read about the situation:

"You have to lower your ideals of freedom if you want to suck on the warm teat of China." - South Park

"What profits a man if he gains the whole world but loses his own soul." - Mark 8:36

The Ringer has a pretty good take on the situation.

Excellent point from Kyle Bass and Yahoo! Finance - how could Darryl Morey's Tweet offend anyone in China since Twitter is banned in China. It's a joke. And Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports also has a good handle on the situation. I feel it should be pointed out that Morey has just 200,000 Twitter followers. His original Tweet was probably ignored by most. But now millions are aware of his Tweet because of the Chinese bullying.

Slate argues that the NBA should leave China. They have a point. Now that the Chinese are aware of how eager the NBA is to be their money-grubbing lapdogs - this is just the start of the demands that will be foisted on the NBA if they want to continue to suck on the warm teat of China.

But what if the NBA called China's bluff? What if they said "If you don't broadcast the Rockets games - you don't get any NBA games"? The NBA is very popular in China and taking away the NBA games is an easy way for unrest to foment. Messing with the working man's sports is always a tricky proposition.

When the histories are written - China's bullying reaction to Morey's innocent Tweet and the NBA kowtowing to the Chinese may be looked at as an important turning point in the decoupling of the United States from Communist China. Or it may be looked at as a turning point where the average Chinese working man turned against their Communist Overlords. 

Or it could be viewed as when America chose sucking on the warm teat of China over freedom.

Brian Colangelo's Burner Accounts

Wow! Just wow! Blown away by The Ringer's fascinating story of Brian Colangelo and his *cough*alleged*cough* Twitter burner accounts.

Five thoughts immediately occurred to me during and after reading the article:

1. First and foremost I thought of Charlie Munger's advice about it being much better to try not to do stupid things than it is to try and be "smart". What Colangelo looks like he did would definitely qualify as doing something stupid. Don't do stupid things! Just don't!

2. Don't trust people who like big stupid collars.

3. This situation both helps the Celtics and also highlights how lucky Boston is to have a responsible adult in Danny Ainge as GM.

4. How ironic would it be if the first place Brian Colangelo turns to to try and save his reputation is JJ Reddick's The Ringer associated podcast?

5. If things really do come in threes - who will be the next well known person to destroy their career because of Twitter misuse? First Roseanne, then Colangelo, and then...

Sports Media Doesn't Get It

Before I go on this rant let me state for the record I did not vote for Donald Trump. Anyone who wants to accuse me of being a "Trumpkin" can suck a long brown snake out of my ass.

Yesterday of RealClearSports top two stories one was by Bryan Curtis of The Ringer titled "Sportswriting Has Become a Liberal Profession - Here's How It Happened" that "explained" that sportswriters inserting their liberal political opinions into their sports reporting is not just a good thing but a very good thing. He uses the example of Lester Rodney an avowed communist from the 1930's whose (according to Bryan Curtis) "moral clarity was keener than just about anybody's." Did I mention that Lester Rodney was an avowed communist? Communism is the most evil invention ever cooked up by the mind of man and at the same time Rodney was exhibiting this superior "moral clarity" millions of people were being exterminated in Communist Russia.

Lester Rodney might have been a useful idiot but Bryan Curtis with the hindsight of history available to him is just an idiot. (RealClearSports rightly labeled the link to the story "How Liberals Hijacked the Sportswriting Profession")

The second story was labeled by RealClearSports as "ESPN Pays for Becoming Social Justice Warrior Network". The link goes to a story about how ESPN is losing 10,000 subscribers a day from people "cutting the cord". If cable channels were to be unbundled - ESPN would completely implode. There are many, many people out there who resent being forced to pay $7 per month just to have Screaming Steven A. Smith and the WNBA jammed down their throats. I cut the cord more than 3-years ago and I don't miss ESPN one bit.

What Bryan Curtis and The Ringer doesn't understand (and ESPN for that matter) is their "we're right and you're stupid if you disagree with us" when it comes to politics attitude is not the way to win friends and influence people and certainly not the way to gain or retain customers. When I go to a sports site - I expect sports. Not a lecture on veganism or an Occupy Wall Street retrospective and especially not a fawning interview with Lena Dunham. I'm removing The Ringer from my blog list. Pretty sure I can do without Mr. Curtis and The Ringer's obsession with the TV show The Bachelor. I've also stopped following Deadspin on Twitter because only one in  five Tweets seem to be about sports these days.

History has proven communism to be a giant mistake. History will also prove that inserting your liberal politics into people's sports was a bad business decision.

Flotsam and Jetsam

Miscellaneous thoughts and observations.

I can understand Tim Tebow having a dream of playing pro baseball but can you imagine how much Social Media would have melted down if Tebow announced he was trying out for the WWE instead?... Jay Cutler ladies and gentlemen... Next challenge for Michael Phelps - cage match vs ManBearPig...  It makes me sad that so many NFL fans today associate the Patriots uniform number 81 with Aaron Hernandez and not All-World tight end Russ Francis... So true... So wasn't Mike Lombardi supposed to have signed with Bill Simmons and The Ringer by now? There must be more to the story of why he wasn't retained by Bill Belichick and the Patriots... Speaking of Michael Phelps - how Americans watch men's swimming...

Bill Simmons / The Ringer

Hard to argue with this assessment of Bill Simmons and his new media platforms:

There’s no buzz. 

How long until HBO cancels Bill Simmons? It’s gonna happen, hell, the new regime scrapped the second season of “Vinyl” after the show had already been picked up. You see the ratings sucked. And TV lives by statistics, they trump friends every time.

There is no buzz. Am I alone in being surprised by that realization? I admit that I've watched all four episodes of Any Given Wednesday (Simmons' HBO Show) but other than people wondering if Ben Affleck was drunk when he ranted against Deflategate - there's been no buzz about the show. None.

My guess is the HBO gives Simmons plenty of runway because his audience is for the most part technically savvy and the type HBO wants signing up for HBO Go. But would anyone be surprised if HBO cancelled his show and instead asked him to work on half-hour 30 for 30-type sports documentaries instead?

I listen to his podcast regularly and I've added Keepin' It 1600 to my rotation as well but could care less about the half-dozen or so other podcasts Simmons' group has launched.No interest whatsoever! And The Ringer itself? I admit that I've never even been to the site. Just as damning is on Twitter I've never even seen a link to any articles I felt were worth my time Tweeted out. Just no buzz whatsoever.

To be fair - I'm going to add The Ringer to my blogroll and give it a fair chance to win my traffic (not like that's going to make or break their site). I've just found myself surprised this morning that after all that speculation about what Bill Simmons would do next after ESPN - there has been no actual buzz for his new media platforms.

No buzz at all!