It's my blog, and I'll cry if I want to

The members of the rock group Rush did their first television interview in more than 30 years on July 16, appearing on the Colbert Report on Comedy Central.

As the owner of practically every CD the band has produced in the past three decades, I feel obligated to post the interview here.



I'm not their biggest fan, but I might be one of their oldest.

A toe in the water

Murray Chass was at one point one of the top baseball writers in the country, doing ground-breaking work for the New York Times. He really was one of the first reporters to write about the business side of the business, and did it pretty well. Make that very well.

Somewhere along the line, though, he became a little old-fashioned in his approach (in other words, the Bill James revolution didn't interest him, among other things). And he seemed to develop a pro-New York bias. I remember one column in which he practically wrote a playoff preview for the Yankees ... in about June, when the pennant race was still very close and obviously a ways from being decided.

I'm not sure what circumstances led to this, but Chass now is the main author at murraychass.com. It just debuted this week, and it's off to a flying start in a manner of speaking. Here's how he starts the introduction:

"This is a site for baseball columns, not for baseball blogs. The proprietor of the site is not a fan of blogs."

OK, well, there goes the target audience. Then there is this little gem:

"Otherwise, this site will most likely appeal primarily to older fans whose interest in good old baseball is largely ignored in this day of young bloggers who know it all, and new- fangled statistics (VORP, for one excuse-me example), which are drowning the game in numbers and making people forget that human beings, not numbers, play the games."

Always good to tell readers how they should be enjoying the game. And finally, there's this little quote:

“I have spent my professional life in the print world, where obscenities don’t see the light of day,” Chass said. “They will remain in the dark here as well. It will be a good test for bloggers and Red Sox fans to see if they can control themselves.”

What was that about a pro-New York (meaning anti-Boston) bias? And does this beg the question, did Chass quote himself in the third person in his own blog?

Yeah, I'll be visiting here a lot.

The steal sign

About time I stole something from Mike Harrington's "Inside Pitch" baseball blog at the Buffalo News, especially after he gave me such a nice plug today.

Mike posted a video to the tune of the 1960's song, "Meet the Mets." It's a classic sports theme song, catchy and memorable at least to people who follow the team. I had the original 45 rpm single when I was about 8 or 9 or so and living in New Jersey. I cleverly left it and all my other 45's behind when I came home from freshman year of college. D'oh!

By the way, my friend Glenn says he thought the song was called "Beat the Mets."

The sick part is, I still know all the words.

Best newspaper correction ever

This has made the rounds of the national sites, but it's too good not to share here. It's from Thursday's Newsday:

July 10, 2008
Jason Simonetti is a Mets fan. A story Tuesday said he was a Yankees fan.

Speaking of the Aud...

A Buffalo News blog just asked the question, "What would you take from Memorial Auditorium if you had the chance?" (Gee, where did Mike Harrington get that idea?)

Someone posted a link to a Web site that's filled with fairly recent pictures of the inside of the place. You can see it here.

Take Five

1. Took a trip to the waterfront last week to check out Buffalo's new Commercial Slip. It's a nice first step, with a great deck next to the waterfront that's perfect to watch the world go by on a nice day. Funny how people drove there to just walk around. People seem to enjoy waterfront access; you'd think we would have figured that out by now.

By the way, if you visit that area, make sure you take a walk around Memorial Auditorium one last time. I even took a picture. There is a fence around it, but it's still nice to see the place. I guess the Aud will be torn down starting in October. Most of us have a lot of memories of the building. Considering how much time I spent there in the 1970's, it was only fitting that I had a key to the place in the late 1980's and early 1990's.

2. On the way back from the waterfront, I drove past the site for the proposed downtown casino. As my wife and I circled the construction area, I said, "It's going to be tough to stop this from happening now." Three days later, the Senecas lost a court decision on it. There goes my Mensa membership.

3. Talk about ESP (and ESPN): In a column just before Wimbledon, Bill Simmons wrote: "If I guaranteed you that the 2008 Wimbledon men's final would be the best tennis match of the past 20 years, would you watch it? Amazingly, many sports fans would say no."

Naturally, the Wimbledon final may have been the best match ever, as Nadal beat Federer in five fabulous sets. It might take an American to care much about tennis any more, and even then it's easy to wonder. We'll see if the game gets a bounce from this finish. You can read all of the Simmons story, including some suggestions on how to improve tennis, here.

4. If you watch ESPN, and in particular "The Sports Reporters," you've come across some sort of advertisement for CDW. The guy in question is on a desert island, and he's worried about his computer security. So he talks on his computer back to the home office. I don't understand the problems faced by the character, and I don't understand the point of the ads. Makes me feel out of touch.

Speaking of ESPN ads, that head-scratcher was followed by the latest in a series of Verizon/ESPN ads, in which people are interviewed like they are the stars of a game, even though they simply watched highlights on their phones. One was named MVP of a baby or wedding shower, the other was interviewed after a ambulance ride. I'd prefer people in ambulances (either the patients or the medical care team) to worry about health problems and not fantasy teams, thank you.

5. Almost four years ago, Suzanne Taylor wrote an article on Joe Kolodziej and his attempts to bring minor-league hockey to Western New York. For starters, it is a fascinating story, so take your time and read it. What's more, I've heard that Joe is said to be unhappy that the full story is posted on the Internet. Gee, can't understand why. (Footnote: He even wrote me via e-mail and said to contact him directly if I wanted the full story. I think his discussion should be with the author.)

Hat in the ring...

A college friend of mine was famous for his funny letters.

Now he's branched into video.



Those Obama and McCain guys are toast.