BSG=Battlestar Galactica
WBC=World Baseball Classic
Me=sporkywhatever
Friday night I set up our Tifaux to tape the season finale of BSG. SciFi had changed the time of the 90 minute finale and lo, I had 30 minutes of Stargate: Atlantis and 60 of BSG. I'm not going to even pre-apologize about this: that mixture is wrong. It's like Fear Factor and Amazing Race. One is good, the other is really not. Sigh. I saw the big-headed aliens as I was fast-forwarding. Sandra informed me last night that the big-headed aliens are actually the Norse pantheon in mythology. Thor=big-headed alien. Whatever.
So I watch the first 2/3 of BSG and then have to come into our home office and spend two dollars to buy it from itunes. The rerun on Monday conflicted with Medium, which wasn't gonna work, and the damn thing cut off right after Balthar had won the election and Roslin had conceded that stealing it was not a good idea. Mary McDonell's performance in the finale was a thing of wonder. And I love the twist. Vichy France, modern America. It's all wrapped up in the current and future season. Fandamntastic. And anyone who know any Emmy voters: my girl MM deserves the Emmy.
Today honey and I went to see round two of the World Baseball Classic at Angel Stadium (nee Angel Stadium of Anaheim nee Edison Field of Anaheim nee the Big A). It's a rainy cold day in SoCal and we had tickets to what was supposed to be the "B" game. Because Japan and the US lamed it up in the first round, we had the "A" game instead. (Mexico v Korea is tonight). We were in the right field pavilion which is not my favorite venue at the stadium. I really like the left field pavilion which is just above the bullpens and down low. The right field pavilion is higher and full of rowdiness. I don't mind rowdiness really, but WBC brought out patriotic stupid rowdiness.
Some of the rapier wit:
"Yo, Griffey. This is better than Cincinnati!"
"Yo Griffey. Where's Barry and his steroids?"
Question: "I wonder why England isn't playing?"
Answer: "They're probably playing cricket or watching soccer. Put another shrimp on the barbie."
(I resisted the temptation to turn around and point out the shrimp on the barbie thing refer to Australia and they did have a team in the WBC).
A lot of bile was spit out against Japan, the woman announcing the Japanese team in Japanese, women, gay men, Yankees (that was ok), and Giants.
Most often the subject of ridicule were the two center fielders. The Japanese center fielder, Kosuke Fukudome got a lot of "fuck you dome" lobbed at him.
We left early, which was good in the end. I didn't want to root for the U.S. given the way my fellow Americans were behaving. And the game turned on a bad call which went against the Japanese followed by an RBI by Alex Rodriguez. No thanks.
Fukudome, in case you're wondering, plays for the Chunichi Dragons and is a career .300 hitter.
The Japanese team was a real joy to watch, with three spectacular plays. First baseman Michihiro Ogasawara robbed an American player with a diving stop and flip to the pitcher. Ogasawara plays for the Japanese team with the best name: The Nippon Ham Fighters. Second baseman Akinori Iwamura of the Yakult Swallows had a nice play. The best one was by shortstop Munenori Kawasaki who plays for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks with a over-the shoulder catch in shallow left.
On the American side, A-Rod and Jeter were typically Yankee weak. Chipper had a beautiful homerun and Scot Shields acquitted himself well as the only Angel in Angel Stadium today.
Still and all, it was one of those experiences that makes me wish people didn't have to be so vocal in their stupidity. I guess that's what makes America great, though. We can be loud and stupid. And I guess I shouldn't be so pessimistic about the whole thing. The Japanese fans at the end of our row laughed at the what the hecklers said several times. Plus, I don't have to live on BSG's New Caprica, which looks like Vancouver winter in tents all the time. (Probably because they filmed it in Vancouver in winter in tents). It's better than Cincinnati, right Griffey?
3 comments:
Rapier-wit omissions: "Hey, Scratchiro!" and "Hey, second baseman, you have a brown stain on your butt!" It does make it difficult to root, root, root for the home team—in this case, the U.S.A.
But going down OC way gave us a chance to eat at Rutabegorz, the only thing I can think of just now that I miss about Orange County.
Shall I get offended that you bash the Stargate series? Actually I admit Stargate Atlantis is of a lower caliber, but really, you must give the original Stargate series a chance (but start from season one). And you have to admit, from a folklorist's perspective the whole aliens=mythology thing is kinda fun.
Even better? Surface. Wow.
I had to look up Vichy France btw.
I am always amazed at the stupidity of OC baseball fans; it's likewise fun to go there to mock them because of it. My buddy sportsBrian does it all the time (he also does it at McCourt, er Dodger, Stadium, but in LA we get a lot more violent overtures thrown our way) there, and the resultant blank stares we get to his barbs cracks me up constantly. OC baseball fans are unusually dense when it comes to defending themselves verbally: "Go back to ___ !"(filling in the blank with the opposing team's home city) is the nearly universal reply. Sheesh, whatta buncha maroons.
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