Letters to the Editor
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Basketball . . . blah, blah, blah
I know it was a long weekend, but NOTHING to say about one of the most exciting Indy 500s in years? Nothing? Come on . . .
An Andretti (OK, two) almost won the thing.
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true dat
First, thanks for mentioning the ridiculous camera-on-a-cable thing. What's the point - am I suppposed to believe this is kind of what it must look like for a player on the court? Get rid of it! Or use it for replays to reveal some interesting point about defense or something. But live play? Nope. Worthless.
Shaq is playing like someone who wants to win. Rolling around Ben Wallace at the baseline, moving quickly and going right to the basket while Ben turned slowly to watch revealed a Shaq that has decided it's time to win another championship, and he's going to do it himself if he has to. I don't remember seeing him playing this way last year when the Heat played the Pistons. He was tough but never really seemed to be the dominant force last year.
Riley has figured out the Pistons, and have taken the few neat offensive things about them (mostly Hamilton's tireless running) and neutralized those things.
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Mics on players
I've been saying it for years-- they should put microphones on all the players. It's a crime that nobody ever got to hear Jordan talking shit (which he did masterfully)except for his opponents. Or what about the discourse between offensive and defensive lines before the snap, or as the players are helping each other up after the tackle? The only big-league sport that it wouldn't do much for is baseball, just because everyone's 30 feet apart-- although I imagine there's an interesting convo between batter and catcher (like in Bull Durham) here and there.
Of course, as you point out King, since these guys are probably dropping F-bombs left right and center, this may not play on ABC on Sunday afternoon but-- why not have alternate, pay-per-view broadcasts of the games, with the players mic'd? That would pretty much eliminate the kiddies from the audience. And it would open additional revenue streams for the networks without much additional effort.
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What - no Bonds hagiography on your first day back?
King,
Long-time reader here, second-time correspondent (wrote to you last year about stirrup socks in the '70s as a gay fetish - Thurman Munson made me quit women for good).
With the near-universal opprobrium that every national sports Web publication and major sports market newspapers heaped on Barry Bonds over the weekend with Home Run 715* (notably excepting San Francisco, that bastion of tolerance, compassion, round heels and Lycra stretch ethics - even Scott Ostler muzzled himself, fer Chrissake), I had been eagerly awaiting your usual brand of sly, incisive commentary regarding this "milestone" in baseball history upon your return today.
Why no comment? I am operating under the assumption that you are physically based in San Francisco at the Salon head office down in Legoland on Spear Street, and/or work from home somewhere in the Bay Area - please correct me if I'm wrong, but your caricature that accompanies your column is straight outta SF Weekly's "Gearhead" period circa 1996 (I spent too many years in "The City" before I was able to return to civilization, aka New York and environs). If this is the case, I can only assume that your corporate overlords (mostly refugees from the late, lamented, pre-Fang SF Examiner, as I recall) have issued the order to muzzle Salon's writers regarding negative commentary on Mr. Bonds' latest, um, achievement - that, or you, too, have ingested the grape Flav-R-Aid and gone native with the rest of today's San Franciscans, whose loyalties shift with the breezes off the Bay and where the moral soil is a mile wide and an inch long (oops! I mean "deep").
That being said, PLEASE tell me I'm so far out in left field as to be out of the ball park (where, in your local case, I spent many a happy hour enjoying medical cannabis on the fishing pier when AT&T Park was just a gleam in Mayor Agnos' left nut). I have raised you on a pedestal, King, and I'd hate to scrap my blueprints for the rotunda where you will eventually take up residence (replacing the statue of Gandhi that occupies your rightful spot on the Golden Gate Ferry landing).
I look forward with hope to your redemptory response.
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Microphones in golf
I have always thought that the sport where microphones would really improve television viewing is in golf. It is one thing to watch professionals hit amazing shots, but another to really understand all of the factors and strategy that go into those shots. The conversations between a caddy and a player leading up to a shot should always be mic'd up. I'd rather hear Phil Mickelson talk about what he is thinking than the interpretation by Jim Nance about what he thinks Mickelson is thinking.
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Joe Smith: Long time reader?
Mr. Smith:
Were you born yesterday? Any long time reader of kaufman's kolumn is well aware of Kings's west coast origins, current family status, and current homefront in the middle of the USA. As for more bad typing about Bonds, even a schoolboy recognizes an out of order dog pile when it appears. No need to idiotically pile on!
Cheers (Bronx variety).
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re: mics on players
I agree with alexcastle. I'd me more than happy to pay $5 a game (or something similar and within reason) to be able to hear what's going on verbally during the game, specifically in the NBA, but that's my own bias. Two current players that I'd pay a lot more to listen to through the course of a game would be Sam Cassell and Gary Payton.
Sadly, network TV contracts being what they are I'm not holding my breath.
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Sports on FM radio
In addition to TV sound, I had the pleasure of hearing some Bulls games back during the Jordan era on FM. It was like sitting in my car at mid court. I had never heard the sound so fully before. We're used to the AM crap we get, but when you're actually sitting in the middle of the action hearing the players go back and forth on your speakers, it's one of the coolest things I've EVER heard. It's like sitting in the crowd.
Couldn't we ditch some crappy shuffle FM stations and put some nice high resolution audio feeds? Do the satellite folk get really great audio like that?