I usually do my best to avoid Deadspin, but a link took me to their ongoing series called Better Know an Umpire, and the place has been somewhat redeemed.
Some men aspire to help the needy, be a good and loving husband and father, or make the world a bit better than they found it. My life's only ambition is to wow a cocktail party by demonstrating every umpire's strike 3 call.
I'm on my way to that goal now.
That is an indisputably good series, even if Deadspin and Grantland are ruining a generation of sports fans.
ReplyDeleteDon't believe me? Check out this recent excerpt: "...snarkity, snark, snark, Teen Wolf, snarkity, derp, that crazy blonde ex-girlfriend you had in college, derpity, snark snark Bill Simmons doopity derp the Bachelor snarkity mail bag snark betting lines Vegas bachelor party snark hyper self-aware blogging snark derp overwrought thinkpiece clurk. Derpity."
Pretty bad, right?
Also, I smell a YouTube video. I don't think there's one that has one guy do the unique punch outs for each umpire. If you get all of them down, I will come out to Denver and film it. That's a promise.
ReplyDeleteMy post was really only a thinly disguised provocation of an anti-Grantland rant. "And it's good!"
ReplyDeleteI think you're on to something with the ruined generation. I thought it was the failure of powerful institutions like the church, the family, and public schools. But you're probably right. This generation of unemployable and umarry-ble perma-adolescents is the fault of lazy sportswriting. That last sentence probably sounds sarcastic, but it's not.