"General manager Jim Bowden is never hesitant to take on problem children from other organizations. So one day he is acquiring OF Lasting Milledge from the Mets and the next day it's OF Elijah Dukes from Tampa Bay. Good luck to manager Manny Acta and his staff. The odds are they will spend more time babysitting than actually running the game."
Are you serious? No, hold on, really? You know, I expected these trades to bring on some controversy, of course they would, but I didn't really expect them to become lessons on social commentary in the media. This has gotten past the point of outrageous. For now, let's push Elijah Dukes aside. He's got a whole host of problems that I can't begin to address, but for everyone flipping their lids because of this business with his ex wife and kids, I'd like to point you towards a fella known as Ice-T.
Ice-T, who got famous for his rap, after having been a Crip, thief, and pimp, wrote and performed a song called Cop Killer in 1992. In it, he described killing policemen. But there's a solid chance you know Ice-T from something besides his band, Body Count. Instead, you probably know him from the very popular TV show "Law and Order: Special Victims Unit," on which he plays - wait for it - a cop. Yet Joe Average isn't wailing and shooting his gun into the air in protest of this hypocrisy, or perhaps even this... maturation? The point I'm trying to make here is that people say stupid shit, and big surprise, they don't always mean it. So while I doubt that in fifteen years Elijah Dukes will be playing his Wife and Kids on Law and Order: Special Families Unit, he might just be playing the part of a baseball player, and doing it pretty convincingly. Might not even be a sociopathic one. But we don't know, and my point is, neither does Schmucky the Clown (alias Tracy Ringolsby) over at FOX.
Okay, on to Lastings Milledge. First of all, as for the infamous "Know your role, rook," note left for Milledge when he wasn't showing up early enough for games, maybe someone should have, I don't know, told him his role? There's an unexplored angle. But basically, it's not a big deal. Could have been handled better by every party, but seriously, that counts as a personality defect? Also, while we're on personality defects, know your fidelity, Paul.
Pressing forward on to the whole rap bit, are we actually going to get up in arms over a foul rap song? Have you turned on the radio lately? Oh, or better still, been to a baseball game? You know those songs they play, when batters walk up to the box? They maybe you've noticed they're as often as not, rap! And songs like Gasolina, Get Low, and Riding Dirty are all popular, and all of (at best) questionable moral fiber.
Seriously, rap pisses a lot of people off, and I understand that. Lots of people, and I count myself among that group, don't really like it, don't really understand it, and disagree with a lot of the messages it puts out. Just as my parents weren't especially pleased when I thought Limp Bizkit was totally rad, as their parents didn't like all this hullabaloo about Dee Snyder and Twisted Sister, and their parents didn't like that new fangled dinosaur music, or whatever they played back then, lots of people are wary of rap. But rap is here to stay, and raking some 22 year old kid over the coals because he recorded a rap song is pretty ridiculous. But saying that he's got some sort of defective personality and will need constant attention or he's liable to get out of hand, well, that's just offensive.
From a young white man to a whole host of old white men, please, please, just shut the hell up and give the kids a chance. Maybe even two. You're just being really embarassing, and at times, overtly and upsettingly racist.
You know, I got through almost this whole entry without really going right into race, but it probably needs to be said. I don't want to divide this debate into White Folk vs. Black Folk, but there's obviously an element of that which needs to be addressed. I don't want to play the race card or the white guilt card, I just want to be up front about what's going on, and why a bunch of people, most of whom are (relatively) old white men, are reacting to a culture that they don't understand with an arrogance and close-mindedness that they should be really ashamed of, and I'm really embarassed by. (Sidenote: I don't have anything against old white men as a group, I hope to be one someday, but there are just a few who keep on sucking on behalf of the whole lot.)
Sunday Morning Mini-News: So I didn't mention this a couple of days ago when it happened, but I feel the need to acknowledge it anyhow. The Nationals also re-signed Ryan Langerhans to a minor league deal when they extended Wily Mo and signed Aaron Boone. Whatever. Langerhans seems like a nice kid, but he might as well go up to the plate swinging a teddy bear. Actually, that's not a bad idea. If it was big enough, people might just walk him, so as to not have to hit a teddy bear with a baseball. Could be traumatizing for all the kiddies in the crowd, you know? I just figured this post out to include something other than my ranting and raving about social commentary.
1 comment:
Awesome post, Bobbo. My favorite line was the one about Dukes playing his wife and kids. I hope it happens someday.
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