Clearly Too Much Time in Front of TV This Week

The Major League Baseball Network is the greatest network in the history of broadcast television. I don’t say that because I want to work for MLB, but rather it is because a real baseball fan, and I do consider myself one, has 24 hour access to it, 365 days a year.

We’ve been able to see video that we have never had a chance to see before. One great example was the full broadcast of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series between the Pirates and the Yankees. What I never knew about that was that Bing Crosby was an owner of the Pirates and had a full-length copy of that game in his basement, or wine cellar, or wherever it was.

At first I was sort of annoyed that it seemed that this was just going to be another place where baseball players could work and earn big money after they were done playing and making big money. But the players that are on there provide some great insight and many of the personalities are winners.

There was a great example of why Hot Stove, the analysis program, is great. One of the regular staff was hosting with Harold Reynolds and Dan Plesac and they had as a guest in the studio, Jerry Hairston Jr. Since Jr. is still playing I guess this was going to be more of an audition of some sort. This gave me the impression that maybe even he didn’t think he was going to be in the majors much longer, but I digress.

Jerry Hairston Jr.



Jerry Hairston Sr.



It happened to be Jerry Hairston Srs. Birthday that day and the guys were passing along well wishes through Jr. So they say that they are going to take a look back on video at Sr. and on the clip he is at bat. A nasty curve ball is thrown by the pitcher and Sr. is struck out flailing away badly at the plate. On the mound was a younger, slimmer Dan Plesac.






Dan Plesac

 A great practical joke on the Hairstons for sure.



Cecil Fielder

The next day the same crew is in the studio and now the talk is about the Milwaukee Brewers. One of the stars of the Brewers is Prince Fielder. Hairston Jr. starts about how Prince’s swing is reminiscent of his father Cecil Fielder’s swing back when he played. They go to the video and there is Cecil smacking about an 800-foot homerun just about knocking out the lights in the stadium.



 
On the mound was a younger, slimmer Dan Plesac. Right back at ya Dan.

Today I feel the need to talk about the Oscars a little bit.

I rarely pay attention to who wins and which movie wins. That part is all nonsense since hardly anyone sees any of those movies (except for Inception, which more movie fans thought was the best of those nominated.) For the most part it’s just a bunch of famous people congratulating each other.

I had a couple of other issues with this year’s show.





Anne Hathaway



James Franco

 

First, James Franco, who I like as an actor, was bad. A mannequin would have been a better co-host for Anne Hathaway, who I also like, but as a hot woman.

I liked the production piece that they did to start the show, but it was down hill from there.

Whoever this Best Supporting Actress winner, Melissa Leo, is was repulsive to me. I was trying to figure out how she actually won an acting award when her acting during her acceptance speech was some of the worst that I have seen.

Can I tell you how I came to that conclusion?



Melissa Leo



Ok, I will. When she pretended that Kirk Douglas gave her some sort of hot flash when he met her to hand her the award, that’s how I knew she was a terrible actress.
No one buys that and no amount of acting talent could make anyone buy that this 109 year old dude was making her hot.

Ditto that for Hathaway also who was seen fanning her hands as if she just got all flustered when Douglas looked over there and mentioned that she is beautiful.

I would have run, or grabbed my stomach to keep from projectile vomiting, if I were either of those two women. And EVERYONE would have bought that.



Kirk Douglas

Why did they trot out Kirk Douglas anyway? I was literally afraid of what might unfold on that TV screen when he was out there. I wondered if he would fall on his face or just out and out die or even worse, I thought he might just pull down his pants as he was talking about those two women.

Back to Ms. Leo. Any chance of her gaining any respect at all, since I had never seen her before (and, by the way, I do realize that she has never seen me before either) was gone when she dropped the F bomb on network TV.

Do people think that’s actually cool to do? It was obvious that she did it on purpose because she can’t act, as mentioned. In the middle of a prime time show she blurts it out. It just made me think she was a tramp.

Don’t get me wrong. I cuss with the worst of them. But if I had just won a prestigious award and congratulations from a bunch of famous people congratulating each other, I would have made a much better attempt to respect the honor by being respectful. Further, I would have given a real performance that proved to those less deserving of congratulations from fellow famous people watching it all on TV that I was indeed a good actor.  



Christian Bale



Just to make sure that I do say something positive here (because there are few more negative things that I could say) I thought that it was way beyond time for Christian Bale to get an Oscar. This guy is absolutely amazing. Pretty much all of his best roles are done in an American accent and he has a natural British accent. That alone makes what he does incredible. (Sort of like Hugh Laurie of House on TV.)



Bale gave a great acceptance speech which I believed and although I thought he would have been one to curse throughout, he did not.

But he did seem to forget his wife’s name, which was funny, and helped make that award one of the memorable ones for me.