Monday, April 16

WSJ: In Praise of the News on Paper

In the Wall Street Journal this morning, there is a short editorial by Barton Swaim on newspapers and why they still matter. This is a topic I have talked about before, and this was a nice reminder: Newspapers, the physical ones, not just the online versions, need to have a future. For better or worse, newspapers provide a clearer understanding of the world with less nonsense, than any other source. Our civility and our discourse could benefit from not only more newspapers, but from more people getting their hands on them and off of their "smart" devices for 30-45 minutes each day.


Sunday, April 15

Joe Kelly Said "Come On" and He's Fighting Human Trafficking

A few days ago, I described a tremendous brawl between the Yankees and Red Sox. My new favorite player in baseball, Joe Kelly, was seen motioning to the petulant Yankee-child staring at him, at the same time saying "come on" to Austin Tyler. A subtle event followed, but the "come on" gesture is now a thing of legend, and I for one am having a difficult time not watching the video 25-50 times per day on a loop.

Anyway, there was a debate immediately after the brawl as to whether Kelly uttered the words "let's go" or "come on". My first tweet that night indicated that I thought he said "come on" while a Red Sox blogger thought Kelly said "let's go", as did the Boston Globe, which has an entire recap article of the event with the wrong title.

Well, Joe Kelly is raising money to fight human trafficking and his campaign is using the words "come on".
So that closes the door on what was said.

This is a great cause and one worthy of our attention, no matter who is calling attention to it. Furthermore, we have the great video that started it all to keep entertaining us and show us how real men play baseball.

Saturday, April 14

Boston Loves Joe Kelly

As I have discussed in the past, I have no use for Boston sports, or their politics. That changed a few nights ago when Joe Kelly rightly went after a Yankee thug.

Boston's hockey team had a playoff game tonight. At one point, the crowd at the Boston Garden started to see video on the jumbotron of the Yankees/Red Sox brawl which had taken place in Boston nights before. The crowd may not have known what was happening, but being that they hate anything related to New York, they politely cheered. Then, the camera went live inside the arena and there was Joe Kelly in attendance. In one of my favorite sports moments ever, the hockey crowd went nuts and started giving Kelly a standing ovation. It ended with chants of "Yankees suck! Yankees suck!"

It was outstanding.





Great Nike Ad with Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux

This was a great ad back in the day, and it has held up with time. So good.

Friday, April 13

Jonah Goldberg's Important Paragraph

Jonah Goldberg has an interesting and wide-ranging piece at National Review. In it, Goldberg writes one of the finest paragraphs I have seen regarding not only Paul Ryan's retirement, but also civility in general and politics in particular.
Again, I’m biased. But as a general rule, whether you’re on the right or the left, if you personally hate Paul Ryan, that’s an indicator to me that you’re an unreasonable person. Sure, you can disagree with him. You can be disappointed in him. But if you buy the claptrap from the Krugmanite Left or the Bannonite Right about Ryan, if you think he’s evil or a fraud, I’m going to assume you’re part of the problem in our politics.

Thursday, April 12

Joe Kelly's Awesome "Come on" Leads to Basebrawl

On a normal day, the so-called rivalry between the Yankees and the Red Sox means nothing to me. It's Boston vs. New York, let's face it, no one wins.

Tonight there was a brawl in Boston between the two teams, and... It. Was. Awesome.

There is a child playing for the Yankees named Austin Tyler. To make a long story short, Tyler slid into 2nd base earlier in the game with his spikes up and caught a Red Sox infielder (I don't know his name or what position he plays and it doesn't matter) in the calf and lower ankle area. The infielder took exception, said something to Tyler, and the benches cleared, however no punches were thrown.

Later in the game, Red Sox reliever Joe Kelly was in the game, and it was time to show Austin Tyler who was boss. Kelly landed a high fastball right into Tyler's back. Tyler was upset, he slammed his bat into the ground, breaking it. He made a few steps towards the pitcher's mound where Kelly was standing, and he was not looking away. Tyler was jawing words, who knows what he was saying, Kelly kept staring, Tyler kept moving towards the mound.

This is when the excitement happened.

Joe Kelly made a motion with his throwing hand that indicated "come here." Tyler charged to the mound, Kelly was ready, semi-dodged Tyler until Tyler was on the ground, and then started landing some punches. By that point the benches had cleared and everyone was on the field and other than some yelling, the event, was uneventful.

When we see the side angle, of the initial "come here" signal I mentioned before, it's tough to determine if Kelly uttered the words "come on" or "let's go." Either way, either of those please me a great deal. This Red Sox blogger name Red (@SurvivingGrady on Twitter) posted one of the funniest things I saw about this on Twitter tonight, and he thinks Kelly said "let's go."

I tweeted later, and after having watched the video no fewer than 100 times already, that I think Kelly said "come on."
I will continue to follow this and update this post as I have more to share. In the meantime, know that I loved this whole thing, Tyler got what he deserved, and I am a big fan of Joe Kelly for the rest of his career.

Replies to Red and coming in and they're hilarious:


Wednesday, April 4

The Masters, 2018

I first started watching The Masters in 1987 because I was obsessed with golf and the Augusta National golf course was amazing to watch on television. I remember watching Larry Mize chip in from off the green to win the Green Jacket. My most memorable tournament was the 1988 Masters when I rooted for Sandy Lyle all the way to victory. The iron shot he made on the 18th out of the sand is as clear to me now as it was then.

 Anyway, I still watch The Masters today. They have made it quite easy to watch the Masters each year via their website and the app, which I have downloaded on my iPad. I opened the app today to make sure it was ready for tee off tomorrow, and that beautiful screen appears and it is amazing (this is a scren cap). I'm ready for another Masters. I'll be rooting for Fred Couples and Phil Mickelson, as usual.