By Steve Rhodes
Posting may be light until Monday, when we hope to finally catch up with Daley’s departure, Rahm’s arrival, Blago’s trial, the new police chief, the new schools chief, and various and sundry other things. We do have a few posts on tap for Friday. It just might be a bit touch-and-go for the next few days due to colliding circumstances overriding my brain circuits.
We do have a new Carl’s Cubs Mailbag today which, among other items, reveals the best porn names in the Cubs clubhouse. A-Ram did not make the cut; nor did Fukudome.
We’ll save those for the launch of Beachwood After Dark. I envision a shade being drawn on the site and twinkling stars emerging to the sultry sounds of Venus Flytrap as all our content goes blue. That’s where the money is.
See you here and there.
The [Wednesday] Papers
Were the White Sox just on the losing end of the Worst No-Hitter Ever?
I watched the game on TV and when the Twins’ Francisco Liriano finally put it to bed, I kind of just shrugged. Eh.
Of course, Liriano got the kind of help you sometimes need to complete a game like that: a defensive gem from third baseman Danny Valencia and a botched call by first-base umpire Paul Emmel.
The call Emmel blew wouldn’t have been scored a hit but a fielder’s choice. But it would have brought at least one more batter to the plate.
Emmel was fooled in part by the acting performance of Justin Morneau.
You try to sell it,” Morneau said.
In other words, you cheat.
Who says sports builds character.
We see this in sports all the time, and players are rewarded for it. Pretend you caught the ball. Pretend the puck didn’t cross the line. Pretend you were tripped. Anything to get ahead. Just like life.
But what if sports instead taught us to be honorable? You know, all that stuff about sportsmanship. And then we translated that to citizenship.
In that kind of world, Morneau would have told Emmel he missed the tag on Gordon Beckham. Would that have been wrong?
In my view, that would have been so right.
Bitter? Hardly. I’m a diehard Twins fan. I hate the White Sox.
But I love more the kind of world I would like to live in. I thought it was the kind of world we were supposed to strive for. And you know what? It’s not that hard of a world to produce. The only thing preventing us from doing so is greed and ego.
But the world we live in does not value truth, which means it does not value facts, which means it does not value principles or, well, values. And a world like that will never value justice, fairness or inalienable right of all of us to pursue happiness.
That play in the eighth inning was a tiny speck – if even that – in the history of the universe. But it tells us a lot about ourselves.
* * *
Speaking of being rewarded for cheating, Derrick Rose was named the NBA’s 2010-2011 Most Valuable Player on Tuesday.
The lesson? If you are talented enough in a way that can makes you exploitable to a lot of greedy people, and you keep your mouth shut, you don’t have to live by the same rules as everyone else.
* * *
We still don’t know what happened inside that cab in Buffalo.
* * *
We still don’t know who hired Angelo Torres, yet Richard M. Daley departs office as a conquering hero.
We don’t seem to care about Daley’s no-snitch code; just the no-snitch code of people who have every right to fear for their lives – and to distrust the police.
That’s the Chicago Police Department that is supposed to be our provider of law and order. But they don’t like law so much when it might reveal their own lack of order.
* * *
Rahm Emanuel just hired a cheater to run Chicago Public Schools. He’s a liar, too.
At least we’ve got the right guy if we want to show our kids how the world works.
* * *
Our very own Dan O’Shea (who was at the game last night and today writes that fantasy owners may want to trade Liriano now) points out to me that the pitcher Liriano faced yesterday threw a no-hitter last season that was arguably worse than what we saw last night.
* * *
And then there was the no-hitter that wasn’t but that taught us the most; if only Daley, Blago, Rahm, Rose and Kane had shown an ounce of the class shown by Armando Galarraga and Jim Joyce.
It’s not perfection I’m after; it’s honesty, and all its attendant values.
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The Beachwood Tip Line: Conveniently located.
Posted on May 5, 2011