King! Do you wear seven finger-rings? Including a skull-ring? Hosanna! You rock.

The sound is out on my computer, so I noticed that visual stuff. I will dive into the dust behind my desk now, and attach the sound, and come back with some scathing comment, but for now, on looks alone: Great!

...we will read you or listen to you. You yourself are in the Golden League of sports broadcasting, and the scouts like what they see and hear.

[I got my sound hooked up.]

This is the right way to use video.

King actually shows things. He interviews people. There is a point to having video associated with this article.

Keep this kind of video.

Stop the pointless, inane, inept, amateur-hour reading-my-column-at-you-very-poorly garbage that is currently the norm on Salon.

King has discovered the secret that eludes other Salon contributers: video works best with you use it to show people stuff.

I watch the Winnipeg Goldeyes a few dozen games a year in the ever shrinking Northern League. We have had a few players like Sherill, Bobby Madritsch, and Zimmerman move from Winnipeg to the bigs, but most of the time it's a motley collection of minor leauge wash outs and guys clinging to the dream. But the baseball is fun, the stadium is beautiful, it draws 6000 fans plus a game, more than a lot of triple A clubs, and let's us enjoy our too brief summer.

King Kaufman, you should venture up here and do a series of stories on the Northern League. (Plus you can take in some CFL action)

This is the kind of sports reporting I'd kill to see anywhere.

King, thanks for the great story. I want to reiterate what a couple of other folks have mentioned -- the perfect blending of prose and video in this article was outstanding. The video illustrated the text perfectly, capturing the atmosphere of the event and the feelings of the players in a way that would have been near-impossible in prose only. Then the text then presented your interpretation and opinion of the event. Very nice!

Please continue this fine work, and try to get your friends at Salon to follow along. To date, most of Salon's video has been the authors reading their columns into a camera, which adds nothing to the story and can frequently detract from it.

You're leading the way. Thanks again!

I liked this story. It reminds me of my dreams of playing ball past high school, and the college roommate I had who tried to walk on to the baseball team at school. We're told as kids that you work hard and keep at something, and you can do anything you want. Later, we learn that it's not exactly true, but if you're close, like these players are, it's nice to see someone keep on trying.

The video was an added treat, though the written story was great on it's own.

I've actually attended a couple Golden League games. They are cheap, you can get close up, and there is less a "nasty" feel that I've gotten in recent ventures to MLB games. It was interesting because there were a couple of player with famous last names - sons of baseball greats from the 80s. I did, however, wonder where they fell in the pecking order of baseball. Guess they are barely on the pecking order.

King, you did fail to mention the best (and longest) team name in the Golden League, let alone all of sports: The Long Beach Armada of Los Angeles of California of the United States of North America Including Barrow, Alaska.

I thought this was a very interesting article. There are so many subcultures and small leagues (not just in baseball, but in so many sports) throughout the US, and I th ink they're fascinating. Maybe they'll expand the league up the coast towards Seattle someday...

In baseball season? What gives, Kaufman? Aren't we still talking about Brett Favre and his vacillating, diva behavior? Hey, I heard he had a dream the other night where he was still playing football. Outrageous! The nerve of the guy, having mixed feelings about retiring from a job he loved so much. Where's Salon on this story? Get on the stick, man.

...reincarnated?

Great piece, King!

now continue down the ladder and do a piece on MSBL, which is now the defacto adult amateur baseball organization in the country.

King's column tangentially linked to a bit from 2004 about how awful Fox is at baseball. This weekend's "coverage" gave us another great example of utter disdain for baseball fans.

So the Sox-Yankees game is in a long rain delay. I tune out. Later I check the MLB website and see that they're playing again and tune back in to Fox. It's prime time now and I don't expect the game to be on. But it is. Papelbon's pitching in the 9th. He gets one out. He gets two outs. He's facing the last batter (we hope). Here comes the pitch...

Aaaaand... Cut to NASCAR. WTF! After what seems like an hour but is probably only about 30 seconds (still unconscionably long and certainly more than enough time for the game to have ended or taken a turn for the worse), the NASCAR announcer casually notes that you can go to F/X for the conclusion of the ballgame.

HOLY CRAP! They made no announcement beforehand. They just switched from the closing moments of one sporting event to the opening moments of another. Heaven forbid we miss some cars going around in a circle for another minute.

I know that the NASCAR event was the regularly-scheduled event and I didn't really even expect Fox to finish up with the ballgame in prime time. But you simply cannot do what they did. At the very least they should have made an announcement beforehand. "We'll be switching to our regularly-scheduled NASCAR event shortly. You can catch the end of this game on F/X." How hard would that have been, really? This is mind-bogglingly amateurish.

It took me a while to find F/X, not a regular destination for me, on my cable system. I made it just in time for the last pitch. And let's not mention the poor slobs who don't have cable who were totally left out in the cold.

Please please please, someone, ANYONE take baseball over from Fox. They do football okay but their baseball coverage is undoubtedly the worst of any network for any sport in the history of broadcasting.