Walk the hot dog
Media too accepting of showboats
IN THE discourse of a week, how much of what we’re told to believe by experts is not even believed by the experts?
John Madden, off air, claimed to dislike all the chestpounding and trashtalking. He said he didn’t like showoffs. Who does? Yet on the air, over forced laughs, he said he loved the biggest allaboutme guys — Deion Sanders and Randy Moss, for two — as great entertainers.
Of course, Madden’s bigselling video games were — still are — loaded with excessively brutal images and showboating, a primary comeon as seen in commercials and on the packaging. Madden made an added fortune encouraging the young to believe what he doesn’t believe. Others? Why do they even bother? Friday, the Yanks were down, 50, in the first, when Alex Rodriguez took an inside first pitch that was called a strike. On YES, Rodriguez was seen questioning the umpire. Also on YES, Paul O’Neill said this about that:
“That’s the count I don’t think umpires understand. Strike one or ball one changes the whole at bat.”
OK, but what was O’Neill suggesting? Umps should call the first pitch differently from all others? Wouldn’t he prefer that umpires “understand” all pitches the same — as balls or strikes?
In the fourth, the Jays’ Edwin Encarnacion homered to make it 81. Instead of quickly circling the bases, he took his time, extending his right arm as if a bird were perched on it. “Walktheparrot” is the latest in ESPNrewarded checkmeout attentiongrabs.
“Does that bother you, Coney?” O’Neill asked David Cone. And it likely bothered O’Neill, or he wouldn’t have asked.
What we know personally and professionally about Cone is he must hate it; hate it as a former pitcher, a dad, a sportsman and a rightheaded human.
But he couldn’t or wouldn’t say it for fear of condemnation as outoftouch with an anythinggoes, bereftof sport sports world, so he took the modern media path and pandered to it, blessed wrong as right:
“Nowadays, it’s a different game. Buck Showalter had an interesting comment about it: Modern ballplayers are responsible for this, about governing their play. If they’re OK with it, he’s OK with it. ...
“Some of it has been good for the game. The old days of keeping your head down and not showing anyone up — that’s a thing of the past. And in some ways, that’s a good thing. You still want to respect the game, but there’s a fine line there and you know when you cross it.
“If you hit a home run into the upper deck and you want to ‘ walk the parrot,’ go ahead, walk the parrot. ... It’s definitely a more lenient attitude toward the display of emotions, which for, the younger generation is a good thing.”
Really? Immodesty — often rehearsed and planned — is a good thing? The most conspicuous rewards such “natural enthusiasm” reaps are brawls, personal fouls and striking homerun poses — posing doubles and into singles.
Forgive me, but I don’t believe a word of what Cone or Showalter said; I believe that they believe that it stinks, that showboating has no tangible or nextgeneration upside, leaving our sports in further decay.
Let the record show that the record is unlikely to show that what nearly was one of the alltime awe and shockers — Jacksonville State winning at Auburn, Saturday — was in some large part derailed by a bad behavior call against JSU.
With 3:06 left, Auburn fumbled — “put the ball on the turf,” according to SEC Network/ESPN’s Dave Neal — at the JSU 13, then JSU’s Brandon Bender was flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct, perhaps for overwalking the parrot.
JSU, further backed up, and soon a bad punt gave Auburn short field position from which to tie the score then win in overtime.