" a moment that seemed to change the world." (Guess what it's about)

[jobycom]

I'm posting this in GD because my point isn't about the contents of the story, but about the tone.

Selective clips:

you almost wanted the world to stop spinning -- just for a moment -- so you could digest what was unfolding before your eyes.

But it was ... a moment that seemed to change the world.

What just happened? Did we really see what we just saw?

But were we sure this was real?

These are questions you always ask yourselves at moments like this, when the impossible has just turned possible.

When you've witnessed what you've just witnessed, anything seems possible. Anything.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playoffs2005/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=2194729

------

Yes, all these quotes are from an ESPN story on Albert Pujols winning a game last night. Not a pennant, not the World Series. One playoff game.

I like baseball, I watched the game, i cheered for the Astros, and I was amazed at what Pujols did, so this has nothing to do with him. I like Pujols, except last night, of course. But in a world where an earthquake has killed over 50,000 people, a tsunami has killed 300,000, two hurricanes have killed over 2000 people, our nation is occupying a formerly sovereign nation and losing more than a soldier a day, on average, and where at any moment someone is likely to strike us for the sins of a leader we didn't elect (as we did to them), all in the last year, this just seems a bit, oh, I don't know. Bombastic? Out of touch? Frivolous, I think is the word.

Just my thoughts. I don't mean this to be a baseball post, but a media/national attention post.

[SheilaT]

1. I'm with you.

I guess it's nice that some baseball team won its game, and since I don't follow it very closely, all I know is that the White Sox and the Cardinals each won a game, and so without bothering to read the piece, I don't know which game is being referred to. Which clearly makes me un-American.

Sports are not all that important, and I'm constantly amazed that they're treated as if they matter more than war, famine, hurricanes, global warming, you name it. I lived in the Washington DC area during the 1970s, and I often thought that anyone who wanted to invade this country need only do it some Sunday when the Redskins are in the playoffs, or better yet the Superbowl.

[leveymg]

2. Bread and Circuses.

Stick to proven recipes.

[InternalDialogue]

3. I'm with you, Jobycom

I'm a sports fan too, just like I am a music fan and a movie fan. And all of those things have their own merit, but only when viewed in relation to the outside world. Any time someone becomes so insulated from the world that they can in good conscience apply to a game the kinds of descriptions you cite, they demean the struggles and events that truly deserve the power of those words.

Thank you for making a good point.

[jobycom]

8. Well said, thanks. nt.

[WeRQ4U]

4. It's sports journalism....what did you expect.

Those stories are always filled with hyperbole.

And for what it's worth, the story did say "seem". LOL.

I know what you mean though.

[jobycom]

10. Yeah, I know. It just rubbed me wrong.

I can even understand such hyperbole for a major championship, because it is the culmination of a great effort, and for the people most involved it is sometimes the culmination of a lifetime of effort. But this was game 5. The Astros could sweep tomorrow night, and the home run will be a minor footnote in the history of St. Louis baseball, nothing more. It just seemed way out of whack, especially for a publishing establishment of the stature of ESPN.

[WeRQ4U]

16. I know what you mean.

I was actually commenting to my wife just yesterday about how it seems like every single year there are at least 5 or 6 "Best _____ Game Ever" stories.

[Tower]

5. He swung, and I saw the face of god!!!

Life as I know it will never be the same. The bat connected with the ball and the ball was driven far past second base. This is just too big to take in.

[senaca]

6. Top on list of "moments that seem to change the world" for DUers would be?

For me it would be the SCOTUS decision 2000.

[jedicord]

7. I'm surprised it wasn't a Faux News column.

I live north of Houston and have been an Astros fan pretty much all of my life. This series is being televised via Faux Sports. My husband and I go nuts at how much they slant toward the Cardinals.

Every bad pitch for them is a bad call. Every play is an heroic effort. The Cardinals are gods and the Astros are ants.

Just like Faux News.

[peekaloo]

9. Well, it did result in Babs having to change Poopy's Depends.

:shrug:

It's a small world.

[jobycom]

11. I doubt it. Bush could care less about some silly baseball game in

some city he has an apartment in, to avoid paying state income taxes. He just wanted to sit behind home plate so people would see him and think warm thoughts about his unpopular son, since the parents are supposed to be more popular than the son.

[peekaloo]

13. They're in an apartment now? He and the Dragon Lady used to live

in a tony subdivision....not River Oaks but I'm blanking on the name. Once a year he would invite clubhouse/front office people to his domicile for lunch AND the privilege to rub buttocks with a "former athlete".

[jobycom]

14. You're probably right. The apartment was a while back. nt

I have been terrible on fact checking today. i should try writing fiction, to get it out of my system. :-)

[Javaman]

12. I can't help but think "dumb jock" here

And my association, dumb jock broadcasters.

[jobycom]

15. Keith Obermiller started as a sports broadcaster.

Then again, Obermiller wouldn't write stuff like this.