Useless reporting

Sometimes the media is just dumb. Not malevolent, or even incompetent, but merely dumb. I think of this because of the story that Buster Olney, who does fine work covering baseball it must be said, decided that it was worth reporting that the Phillies were having internal talks about trading Ryan Howard for Albert Pujols. I simply must ask: why is this news? Seriously, Olney did not report that the Cardinals were considering accepting the offer, heck on TV he went out of his way to say that they weren't. So what he actually reported was that the Philadelphia Phillies were talking INTERNALLY about trying to trade for Albert Pujols. Excuse me for saying this, but NO SHIT the Phillies were talking about trading for Pujols. He's the best in the game, and Howard does present a decent alternative. It isn't news that ANYONE needs to hear because there was absolutely no indication that the Cardinals wanted the deal. So really, what happened was there was a slow news day for baseball and Olney wanted to get his name on ESPN with something. Thus we got dumb reporting.

Michael Jordan

To say that Michael Jordan was a sports god is an understatement of such monumental proportions it is not even funny. A lot has been written about WHY he was the greatest basketball player of all time, but not a lot has been written about the way he towered over every other athelete in existence to children who grew up in the ninties like myself.

His aura for children of my generation cannot be overstated. Bear in mind, for my entire childhood I probably watched one or two pro basketball games on TV in my life. St. Louis didn't have a basketball team, so I really didn't care about basketball. Well let me amend that, I didn't care about basketball except for Michael Jordan. I didn't know much about basketball, but I knew MJ. I knew MJ was better than any other basketball player in existence (and, in my mind at least, it was not even close). He was the gold standard of sports godhood to me, and I didn't even care about basketball.

To put it another way, when I was a kid I had two posters of atheletes in my room. One was of Brett Hull, the man who is probably my favorite athelete in any sport, and the other was of MJ. There was no Ozzie Smith or Cardinals posters in my room, yet my parents got me MJ's poster. It was as beloved as my Brett Hull poster, even though it represented a sport I didn't care about.

That, is what defined Michael Jordan. His greatness was so obvious. His persona was so likeable that one didn't even have to know his sport to find him beloved. That is true sports godhood, and that is why there will never be another MJ.

On Baseball

Baseball is my favorite sport. At first it does not seem to be that profound of a statement except... well let me explain. I love Sundays during football season. I can watch any hockey team play and enjoy the game, which cannot be said of baseball, and nothing can equal the visceral thrill of a good boxing match. Yet in spite of these facts, baseball is my favorite sport.

The reasons are as corny as it gets, but still worth noting. My love of baseball starts with the stereotype of the young boy going to the games with his father. A lot of my earliest memories are of going to games with my parents at my grandfather's seats down the first base line of the second Busch Stadium in St. Louis. Not even seeing Pavlik/Taylor II could equal the fun and excitement I used to have as a kid during opening day. I remember it seeming so special that I was at the first game of the season. It was as if no one else had ever done it before, and this was the most amazing thing in the world. I was at Ozzie Smith's last game in uniform. These are just a couple of examples of the memories of baseball from childhood and how much I enjoyed it. If I wanted, I could probably list a dozen more examples of it.

I guess my point is that even if I will never enjoy a baseball game as much as I enjoy matches in other sports, baseball will always be my favorite sport. It is what I grew up on, and what I shared most with my family. I can never love a sport like I LOVE baseball, and that is a simple truth.

Short Sighted NBC

I'm watching the USA/Canada game on MSNBC right now because NBC has Ice Dancing on regular NBC. This makes sense in the short time. It is undoubtedly true that Ice Dancing will likely get better ratings then the hockey game on NBC. The problem is that that is incredibly short sighted. The issue here is that NBC has a deal to nationally broadcast NHL games. If the people who were running NBC were intelligent, they would put the hockey game on regular NBC and use it to promote the heck out of the NHL. Indeed, it seems like common sense to use the increased viewership in hockey to promote future games and try to increase ratings for their NHL telecasts. That would, obviously, lead to increased add revenue in the long run. Of course that would involve thinking in the long term, which apparently NBC execs are incapable of doing.

If you are wondering why I refuse to give the NBC executives the benefit of the doubt, the simple truth is these are the same people who are having the best ratings they've had in a long time, and are still losing $200 million on the Olympics. Not to mention the whole Conan-Leno fiasco earlier in the year and consistently bad ratings in the last year. My point is that the people in charge of NBC have consistently proven themselves to be less than intelligent, and this is just another example of it.

I vow

As a general rule, I don't like personal blogs. I don't read 'em, don't care for, and, to be perfectly honest, don't really want to be associated with them. Why? The vast majority of them are horribly self indulgent. What people share are not insightful thoughts about life, the Universe, and Everything. Rather they talk about their day, which, quite frankly NO ONE, cares about. Not their friends, not their family, not anyone.

Thus, this vow I make: I will never blog about my day to day life, and only blog if I feel that I have something worthwhile to say. If this means that I blog less than once a day, so be it. I would rather blog sparingly and insightfully, then incessently and inanely.

First Post, or "Why Skald's Inn"

To answer that question the first thing that must be explained is what a skald is. Simply put a skald is a Norse bard. In the viking age, and after, skalds were revered for their abilities to tell stories. After all, in the norse culture, the truest sort of immortality is that of having your name remembered for ages.

I'd like to consider myself a bit of a skald too, sharing stories, thoughts and feelings. So please take a seat in this Inn, listen to the song and enjoy yourself.