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You can tell so many different kinds of stories through sports. And sports provides you with the action that's going on behind the story. It's not "sports" exactly, it's what sports enables you to get to. I really like the fact that you never know how it's going to turn out, it's the unscripted quality ... the capacity to surprise you, constantly. There's not much in our culture that's that way. And people's passions are really involved in sports.
--Michael Lewis

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Back to the Beginning

The reason I've more or less decided to leave my other blog is that I am just burned out on writing about EM08 (for the curious, if you go there look for the sidebar down a ways on the left that explains what EM08 is). There simply is just way too much crime and corruption going on there and it's a never-ending pit. Enough has been said there for peeps to gain a perspective, and if they don't care, well, I don't know what a little blog like that can possibly do to sway them.

One positive result of my "EM08 burnout" was that I made a decision to stop listening to NPR and Pacifica in addition to the long ago banished msm. At the same time, the rise of Jeremy Lin was in effect, and so with the advent of the net, I began listening in to WFAN religiously. As a Stern fan, I'd been aware of Mike Francesa through Artie Lange, and quickly got familiar with the roster. Steve Somers, a former Bay area guy, and Tony Paige are favorites now.

Then the Ryan Braun scandal erupted.


And a curious thing happened; I got rejuvenated. Sports, my first love, long neglected in favor of politics, business and art, took on a second life for me. And I recalled what Noam Chomsky once said about Americans, about how, contrary to popular opinion, they're not dumb, and for proof, all you have to do is tune in to sports talk radio and listen to the fans. A fair amount of them are pretty informed, knowledgeable and articulate in their comments on a landscape with a myriad of variables, from player matchups to coaching strategies, trades, and on and on. 
I also recalled what Michael Lewis said in his quote under the masthead.


That was the impetus for this blog. 
Until next time, here're some funny vids from AT&T's recent campaign during March Madness (evidently produced by agency BBDO), "Brackets by Six Year Olds." I think these are LA kids. Kenneth is hilarious.