“Though many may forgive injuries, none have forgiven contempt.” – Ben Franklin
I used to be naive enough to believe that the country’s most important leaders were surrounded by the best and brightest to serve them and, hopefully, us.
But if they can’t fix the simple things, right from wrong…
In 1990, the first President Bush appointed Arnold Schwarzenegger, whose fame and fortune was due to steroids to gain international bodybuilding fame, as chairman of the President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports.
It was an absurd choice, antithetical to both physical training and sport. There will certainly be protests, widespread ridicule, to overturn this wrongful decision. But nothing. Everyone loved “Ahh-nold”, a scripted adventure movie character.
Yesterday, the Biden White House, which blindly supported former men unfairly competing in sports as women, as champions of gender equality – a strange explanation for the obvious, undeniable inequality – pulled another stone as it ignored what was impossible to skip to try to collect more engagement political points.
Megan RapinoeEPA
President Biden awarded soccer star and gay and women’s rights activist Megan Rapinoe – repulsive in her obnoxious, narcissistic, classless behavior during the 2019 Women’s World Cup in France, which completely open-minded Americans were incited to rally against our team – with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor.
The medal represents “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant public, public, or private endeavors.”
Yet Rapinoe, during and after the World Cup, established herself as an example of unbridled selfishness and classlessness, starting with kneeling during the US anthem, eager to demonstrate on an international stage her contempt for her country, beneath her citizenship.
In a senseless 13-0 humiliation of Thailand, Rapinoe made sure to come off as the ultimate bully. Her easy goal to make it 9-0 was followed by her abandoning help to teammates to run the length of the field in obnoxious self-aggrandizement.
Hey, without that goal it would only be 8-0, plenty of time for more!
On Fox, host Rob Stone, ostensibly assigned to wave the American flag, was disgusted by Rapinoe’s behavior and the senseless brutality of Team USA’s bully girl. After all, the easiest thing you can do in a two-sided game is not to score, kill the clock, protect your dignity, save further humiliation for your completely defeated opponents, show them and to the world its graceful side.
But as Fox analyst Alexi Lalas offered hollow rationalizations — “What did you want them to do?” — as if he didn’t know, Stone said, “But 13-0? I understand your point, but this game was finished. It became humiliating. It just became a target practice.”
And struck down by her own, indefensible mechanisms, Rapinoe, the Team USA captain who brought dirt on the game and the country — even taunting late opponents and their fans after scoring a goal — became the deserved villain of the World Cup. Even here.
Still, on his way to the Presidential Medal of Freedom, Rapinoe wasn’t done. In her speech at New York City Hall after the parade to congratulate the world champions, Rapinoe couldn’t address the crowd full of children without yelling “mom–r!” Pure class.
Nobody on Biden’s team knew about it? No one did 10 minutes of research? Or was everyone nice to him, approved of him?
Thus, according to the White House, steroid-addicted Arnold Schwarzenegger was the national symbol of physical fitness, and swimmer Leah Thomas, formerly William Thomas, was competing fairly against biological women.
Still, Rapinoe, Thursday, was awarded America’s highest civilian honor by Biden for “exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant public, public, or private endeavor.” She met all the qualifications.
Oh no! The show is ruined by YES
Since the bottom players who run MLB, the Yankees and YES have nothing to be ashamed of, it will stay that way.
This week, Yankees fans were once again sentenced to hard labor (for which they have to pay) as YES fed us Ryan “Rah Rah” Ruocco and Carlos Beltran in the non-musical remake of “Help!”
We still don’t know the name of the YES executive who added Beltran, but he’s likely considered a flight risk — if it’s not too late. Not much else to write on the subject except that Beltran is the worst choice since the Hindenburg was full of hydrogen.
Ruocco continues to get easily excited about common occurrences like the Yankees turning a double play — as if he or we have never seen such a thing before. We just want to watch the game, not attend a rally.
Ryan RuoccoNBAE via Getty Images
Then there was another Rob Manfred on Friday night. With Yanks-Cleveland postponed due to rain until the postponement, the Amazon Prime exclusive stream showed just one still camera showing rain falling on the field.
There was no audio, no graphics to indicate if the game was still on, no nothing, including DVR capabilities for those who could instead choose to watch something else that wasn’t happening. This was the paywall version of Ch. 11 Christmas Day.
Also, Friday’s Rangers-Mets was hidden from best view when it appeared on Apple+, where player-by-player and inexhaustible weekly anchor Melanie Newman inadvertently allowed Howie Rose his remaining oxygen. Local radio saved the night from further wanton destruction of Manfred.
Apparently Manfred is ready! Fire! Take aim! the streaming plan was not primed for success. Not unless the neglect and rotten productions were the lure to buy MLB’s partner streaming services. In other words, even if you can’t see or hear it, take it or leave it!
SNY is making the right decision
In this age of blind capitulation to pitching and hitting analysis and optional runs to first base, good fundamental baseball still shines like a beacon in the darkest storm.
Thus, on deck, Brandon Nimmo’s signal to Dom Smith to slide — and to the inside of the plate — when Smith scored in the 10th against the Reds on Wednesday was immediately recognized and admired. OK, it wasn’t a Manfred MLB Network certified highlight reel flip of the bat, but still…
Brandon Nimmo’s signal to Dominique Smith to slide from the inside of the plate was a heads-up play that SNY rightly praised during the Mets’ comeback win over the Reds. Getty Images
Not that we’re surprised, but Islanders and NHL TV voice Brendan Burke was a solid replacement for John Sterling during the Yanks at Pirates. He’s a listener-first professional, even politely putting up with Susin Waldman’s unnecessary interventions to tell a “two-phase” from a “quad-hull.”
Let the record show that under Manfred the Yankees didn’t play on the Fourth of July for the first time since 1915. Not that anything had happened before, unless you count Lou Gehrig’s 1939 valedictory speech and Dave Righetti’s no-hitter in 1983 against Boston.
Chris Broussard, the Fox NBA “expert” who this week firmly suggested, despite anecdotal evidence and evidence to the contrary, that Toronto is a racist city, was not trusted when he worked for ESPN, where he at least twice took credit for the first spoons report others.
Professional tennis is already loaded with as many insufferable bastards – male and female – as the rest of modern sports trash. Rooting interests are now based on the smaller of the two weasels. If Nick Kyrgios hit a ball into a wall, I’d be rooting for the wall.
Reader Kelly Feniger wonders what Ralph Keener would do with the Marlins’ Garrett Cooper, given that Keener regularly referred to Gary Carter as Gary Cooper. I think he would have split the difference and called him Marlin Brando.
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