Kind of quiet in the sports world these days – but for the fact the Indians lost two of three in Kansas City, which makes this season look more and more dismal. Let’s face it, a team that’s going to contend probably does not lose two-of-three to a team that started the series losing 11 in a row. The Indians? They’re in trouble. These days, they pretty much stink and if things don't change drastcially in a hurry, then the season will be lost. Then it will be time to start thinking about the future of C.C. Sabathia, and whether it’s best to trade him before the deadline.
Shared some thoughts in Sunday’s Beacon Journal about Kellen Winslow, a possible move that could help the Cavs and other random things. That story is here.
A fellow traveler named Jim posted his own photo of “The Bean” in Chicago. And it’s a good one, Jim. Thanks. Which gives me an idea of asking you all this summer to share your most interesting photos of your vacation. Now, this does not mean we pose with Grandma and Uncle Hugo in front of the Grand Canyon (ever see the Far Side with “The Holsteins visit the Grand Canyon”? Classic). That’s been done. These photos would be unique things, different things, interesting discoveries from your vacation. Perhaps the bottom of the Blue Hole, something like that. I’m not sure how to get this accomplished though, so let me do some checking. Until then, Bean photos are in the post after this one. And … here is some information on “The Bean.” (It’s actually called Cloud Gate, but folks in the know call it The Bean.) Click a few times on the page – the stinking Bean weighs 110 tons!!!
Found the new Scott McLellan book interesting. He’s the former press secretary for George Bush, and he came out and said he did not feel he did the right thing justifying the Iraq invasion with lies (that’s my paraphrase). I admire him, but this book also showed how the media went along with the stories it was told about WMD and the rest, and how it was complicit because it did not investigate things deeply enough. So I got to thinking about my profession, and about the accusations by some that media who question the decisions of the administration are unpatriotic or something like that. In fact, the exact opposite is true. It is the job and requirement of the media to question, to ask things, to investigate. The end result that is printed or broadcast has to be balanced and fair (like … umm … Fox News). But the questions have to be asked. It’s the media’s duty. Especially when the issues being discussed affect the lives and well-being of another nation and of our young women and men. They can try to sanitize a war by not allowing photos of flag-draped coffins, but that senseless cover-up doesn’t play in the long run. When lives are at stake, it’s the media’s job to probe. To my knowledge, there is one specific profession protected in the U.S. Constitution, and that’s freedom of the press. The most patriotic thing the press can do, quite frankly, is ask questions.
Now …for some sex.
Gotcha.
A friend of mine once posited (like that word?) that men do not hold women back, women hold women back. Why, I asked oh so intelligently. Because there are more women than men in the nation, he responded, if they don’t like something they can vote the men out. I thought of this during all the hubbub over the release of the Sex and the City movie, a real event if ever there was one. Now, let me say that I found this a pretty good show. It was clever and interesting, if only to give this Neanderthal a tiny peek into the female psyche. Not that I’d ever understand it. Not that any of us on this side of the ledger would ever understand it. But it tried. And I’ll probably see the movie. Well … I will see the movie.
All the stories about the movie detail how the theater is filled with women and the four or five men who are a) dragged their unwillingly or b) willing to go along because … well … arguing is really pretty futile isn’t it? But the thing that gets me about this show is that it’s about women, who for years have complained about the infidelities and quirkiness of men. And what do these women do? They sleep around. They do not commit to anyone. They hang out in bars (only they have Cosmos, not beer). They flit (especially in one case) from man to man. They cheat. They do all the things that men have done for decades. And they’re proud of it. Nothing wrong with sex, mind you, or with searching for fun in New York City. If you lived there and lived as wealthy a lifestyle as these four, it’d be interesting. But isn’t this the stuff men have thoughtlessly done for years?
Women in this and the next generation have a grand chance because many of the barriers that existed in the past have properly come down. They have the chance to erase some of the dumb things that men have done (we really have made a pretty big mess of the world, if you think about it). Just like men have a great opportunity to be more nurturing with their kids if they choose to stay at home with them more. Yet when women have a chance, they often/sometimes just go out and do it exactly like men have done for years.
Now, I have daughters, and I certainly try to teach them that they can do anything they want in life. I hope they understand that. One of my daughters was incensed that girls could not play football, so she thought long and hard about playing next year to prove girls could do it. I was concerned for her, but I’d be concerned if I had a son who wanted to play football. It’s a violent game. It’d be scary if she plays, but I think she’d be a pretty good running back. She’s blessed with determination and speed; she’s beat almost every boy in her class in races. So even with the considerable risks she might just have been able to pull football off – if she wanted to. She decided against it, but the point is there’s none of this “you can’t because you’re a girl” attitude in our home. No reason for it, really.
So women entering the workforce and the movie world and the sports world have a grand opportunity to set new standards, to erase the garbage men put forward for the years they were in charge. But I watch women coach basketball, and they act just like men do on the sidelines. I see Hillary Clinton campaign, and she’s just like her husband and every other man who’s ever campaigned. Same mannerisms, same expressions, same fake smile, same idiotic clapping. All that stuff. (Actually the last true campaign, where someone actually stood up for what he felt was right and not what he thought people wanted to hear, belonged to Robert Kennedy, but that’s a separate topic).
I see this movie, and it glorifies these women for doing all the ridiculous stuff men did. I, in my Neanderthal, not-so-smart male way, find this confusing. Because these career women could set a new standard for being single in New York. Yet it boils down to sleeping around, and either obsessing or making fun of the men they sleep around with – few of which are actually, like, good people.
How about this idea? This movie is about and largely for women. The main characters are women who are raking in gobs of money to make this movie. How about if all four of them said we’re donating two percent or three percent or something like that of our money from this movie and giving it to breast cancer research. They’d still go home with gobs of money, yet they’d be helping women. Maybe they’re doing it, but I haven’t heard if they are.
Women in sports could set a new standard for sportsmanship and behavior that men have lacked – a standard that Mia Hamm and the U.S. Soccer team displayed until Brandi Chastain decided to take off her shirt after she scored a goal to win the World Cup. Would we have celebrated seeing a man in a jockstrap after a winning goal?
Perhaps I should stick to the barbecue, but I just think that women could blaze new trails, set different and perhaps better standards. I just don’t’ get doing the same stupid things we men have been doing for so long.
But the prognosis for Jake Westbrook does not sound good. Any time a guy goes to see an expert on Tommy John surgery, it does not sound good. Sounds possible, perhaps likely, the Indians will lose Westbrook for the season, if not longer. Which means that this season the Indians have lost their No. 2 and No. 3 starters for periods of time (Fausto Carmona and Westbrook) and gotten next to nothing from their No. 3 and 4 hitters (Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez). There’s still time in a season, and the Indians do have pitching depth – though minor leaguer Adam Miller is done for the year following surgery on his finger – but given these facts is it any wonder the Indians have struggled?
