General

Complainer Complaining About Culture Of Complaint

Nov 5, 2009, 10:30 PM UTC

â†µRichard Sandomir's got a problem with you, twitter blogger tweetyâ†µguy who spends a lot of time complaining about how broadcasters areâ†µbiased against your team. And he's got a complaintâ†µabout the culture: â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥Fox’s Joe Buck and Timâ†µâ‡¥McCarver are in their 12th World Series together -- time enough toâ†µâ‡¥become Exhibits A andâ†µâ‡¥B in the culture of complaint, postseason edition. No announcer goesâ†µâ‡¥unscathed, not with myriad outlets existing to help fans vent theirâ†µâ‡¥belief in the biases and mistakes of those who call the games.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥One can only imagine how Howard Cosell would react to being an objectâ†µâ‡¥of derision by Tweeters.â†µâ†µâ†µHoward Cosell would react like he reacted to everything:â†µsighing wearily and wishing he had more scotch. â†µ

â†µâ†µSetting aside the idea that Richard Sandomir is surprised that largeâ†µsections of the population motivated enough to post anonymous notesâ†µabout sports teams happen to be dumb conspiracy theorists, I have aâ†µcomplaint about Richard Sandomir’s complaint about the culture ofâ†µcomplaint. Richard Sandomir is part of it. â†µ

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â†µSandomir spent aâ†µthousand words just a month ago rippingâ†µChip "Fisted" Caray a new orifice via which to bumble outâ†µincorrect reports of base hits:â†µ

â†µâ†µâ‡¥No one in the production truck could rescue him from his 10th-inningâ†µâ‡¥classic faux pas during the Twins-Tigersâ†µâ‡¥tie breaker Tuesday night. Caray called theâ†µâ‡¥Twins’ Nick Punto’s sharply hit liner to left field this way: “Lineâ†µâ‡¥drive. Base hit. Caught out there. The runner tags. Throw to the plate.â†µâ‡¥On target. And in time! A double play.”â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥My ears quivered in amazement at hearing a very obvious lineoutâ†µâ‡¥called a single as smoothly as Caray did.â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥
â†µâ‡¥It’s baseball, as never taught by Prof. Vinâ†µâ‡¥Scully.â†µâ†µâ†µThere’s more and more and more; I like to envision the piece as aâ†µraving lunatic’s take on Chip Caray (FISTED!) burnished to a smoothâ†µNew York Times polish by a harried editor. The piece doesn’tâ†µjust linger on Caray’s (FISTED!) ineptness, it delves into truly trivialâ†µcomplaints about how many passed balls Jorge Posada has allowed andâ†µunwise production decisions. Richard Sandomir is seriously angry,â†µyou guys, and is going to use his bully pulpit to complain about it.â†µ

â†µâ†µThis is not logging onto Facebook to lob accusations of Timâ†µMcCarver’s anti-Yankees bias*, but neither is it zen-like acceptance ofâ†µthe things you cannot change. As always, the lesson is: the internetâ†µremembers everything. â†µ

â†µâ†µ*(Tim McCarver’s bias is not against the Yankees but logic and, moreâ†µgenerally, the future of humanity. This has been amplyâ†µdemonstrated by the late, great Fire Joe Morgan.)â†µ

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This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

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