Chill
Kevin’s Royals Blog received a pretty significant promotion today that’ll likely springboard its number of readers. At least that’s what I’m expecting after Aaron Gleeman (who runs arguably the most popular baseball blog in the blogging business) added a link to this page on his. I’m pretty sure this is both a blessing and a curse, because while more readers means more recognition, it also means more pressure to post something (or more than one something) of quality every weekday. I think I’ll be okay, though. After all, I only started this blog so I could have my own forum to talk baseball and share my thoughts with other baseball fans out there. I’m doing what I love and love what I’m doing, and this significant step forward is an awesome feeling.
Moving on to another topic at hand, I’m starting to wonder about the sanity of American society, especially that of those who attend and watch sporting events. As I’m sure most of you are aware, after scoring a second-half touchdown in the Vikings’ win over the Packers on Wild Card Weekend, Randy Moss did what star wideouts do nowadays: Celebrate the score in a creative fashion. However, Moss’s creativity in this instance involved pretending to pull his pants down and moon the Green Bay faithful:
I laughed, because my knee-jerk reaction was thinking, "That’s clever. Never seen that before." Without giving it another thought, I proceeded to continue eating my chicken caesar salad wrap from Ebbets Field. That was it.
However, it seems that most everybody else who witnessed such a "horrifying" thing on television either can’t or doesn’t want to let it go. Joe Buck, who was announcing the game, denounced the action. Stuart Scott, while doing the game highlight on that evening’s SportsCenter, called out Moss not once, but twice, calling his end zone dance "distasteful" and then "once again – not in good taste" in the span of two minutes. Art Hains, who’s an excellent host of the local evening sportstalk radio, thought it crossed the line too.
After hearing all of the evidence and opinions and having time to re-form mine, I’ve decided that Randy’s moonwalk was probably more stupid than funny, but I’m still not offended by it like a lot of other people seem to be. Maybe I’m just too young to care about that sort of thing, but the way I see it, if he’d actually pulled down his pants in front of 70,000+ at Lambeau Field and millions more watching on national television, THAT would’ve been distasteful/ugly/inappropriate. However, he didn’t. In fact, I’m thankful he’s caused another stir, because it’s only with additional Wardrobe Malfunctions and Sharpie Incidents that we as a society will be able to address our tendency to be overly sensitive, especially when sports are involved.
It just isn’t right that the Terrell Owenses, Randy Mosses, and Jose Limas of the world are often criticized (and sometimes fined) for doing some showboating after scoring a touchdown or, in Lima’s case, picking up a key strikeout or two. I enjoy watching those guys play too much to care about the extracurricular stuff they do on the field, which I think just adds a whole other level of fun to the game. The purist crowd who enjoys picking on these players is slowly evaporating, I think, but there are still a few out there who just need to lighten up a little bit. None of this stuff is hurting the integrity of the game or the individuals who play it.
One other thing ...
As of right now, Opening Day is 81 days away, but my Opening Day’s going to come a little bit sooner. On April 2, Hammons Field will officially be christened when the St. Louis Cardinals come to Springfield to take on the Springfield Cardinals as a final tune-up for the regular season. I have my doubts that we’ll see any more than just one plate appearance for guys like Edmonds, Pujols, and Rolen, but it’s going to be awesome nevertheless. Many summer nights are going to be spent at that beautiful stadium this year. If you guys and gals are interested, I might post some pictures and detail the games I go to, which is going to be every game possible.
Moving on to another topic at hand, I’m starting to wonder about the sanity of American society, especially that of those who attend and watch sporting events. As I’m sure most of you are aware, after scoring a second-half touchdown in the Vikings’ win over the Packers on Wild Card Weekend, Randy Moss did what star wideouts do nowadays: Celebrate the score in a creative fashion. However, Moss’s creativity in this instance involved pretending to pull his pants down and moon the Green Bay faithful:
I laughed, because my knee-jerk reaction was thinking, "That’s clever. Never seen that before." Without giving it another thought, I proceeded to continue eating my chicken caesar salad wrap from Ebbets Field. That was it.
However, it seems that most everybody else who witnessed such a "horrifying" thing on television either can’t or doesn’t want to let it go. Joe Buck, who was announcing the game, denounced the action. Stuart Scott, while doing the game highlight on that evening’s SportsCenter, called out Moss not once, but twice, calling his end zone dance "distasteful" and then "once again – not in good taste" in the span of two minutes. Art Hains, who’s an excellent host of the local evening sportstalk radio, thought it crossed the line too.
After hearing all of the evidence and opinions and having time to re-form mine, I’ve decided that Randy’s moonwalk was probably more stupid than funny, but I’m still not offended by it like a lot of other people seem to be. Maybe I’m just too young to care about that sort of thing, but the way I see it, if he’d actually pulled down his pants in front of 70,000+ at Lambeau Field and millions more watching on national television, THAT would’ve been distasteful/ugly/inappropriate. However, he didn’t. In fact, I’m thankful he’s caused another stir, because it’s only with additional Wardrobe Malfunctions and Sharpie Incidents that we as a society will be able to address our tendency to be overly sensitive, especially when sports are involved.
It just isn’t right that the Terrell Owenses, Randy Mosses, and Jose Limas of the world are often criticized (and sometimes fined) for doing some showboating after scoring a touchdown or, in Lima’s case, picking up a key strikeout or two. I enjoy watching those guys play too much to care about the extracurricular stuff they do on the field, which I think just adds a whole other level of fun to the game. The purist crowd who enjoys picking on these players is slowly evaporating, I think, but there are still a few out there who just need to lighten up a little bit. None of this stuff is hurting the integrity of the game or the individuals who play it.
One other thing ...
As of right now, Opening Day is 81 days away, but my Opening Day’s going to come a little bit sooner. On April 2, Hammons Field will officially be christened when the St. Louis Cardinals come to Springfield to take on the Springfield Cardinals as a final tune-up for the regular season. I have my doubts that we’ll see any more than just one plate appearance for guys like Edmonds, Pujols, and Rolen, but it’s going to be awesome nevertheless. Many summer nights are going to be spent at that beautiful stadium this year. If you guys and gals are interested, I might post some pictures and detail the games I go to, which is going to be every game possible.