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07-28-2010 Happy: TV makes me happy. July, not known as one of the hottest months for TV, has come alive in 2010 and has been putting out some good stuff. Let's check out the highlights of the past few weeks: But nothing - NOTHING - is going to be as wonderous as the sophomore season of Jersey Shore!
What is there to say about Jersey Shore? Either you love it, hate it, or just don't understand it. It's hilarious, madly quotable, and the characters are mystifyingly endearing. Sad: I just sold a 1940 Play Ball Shoeless Joe Jackson card to a gentleman in Germany. I know what you're thinking - This should have been filed under the 'happy' column, right? Yeah, overall it's a good thing. I am a card dealer, and my business is definitely going to come to a screeching halt if I stop selling cards. But there were two things about this sale that made me sad. The first is easy: This was the first Shoeless Joe card I ever owned, and it was only in my inventory for a couple months at most. There is a large part of me that is still a collector at heart, and this part of me hates to see certain rare cards go. I'll probably always be like that. Sometimes people ask me about other businesses I might step into - real estate, etc. That stuff doesn't interest me. I love cards. I hope this rubs off on my customers and anyone who I ever talk to about sports or collecting. The other part of this sale that made me sad was the minimal interaction/transaction ratio. (And yes, I just made that up.) A few quick e-mails and we had a deal on this rather expensive card. But it is very unlikely I will ever meet this customer, know what else he collects, or find out what he does for a living. Does he love David Hasselhoff? (And why?!!?) Call me old-fashioned, but I like shows for this very reason. Getting to know my customers, meeting face-to-face, and sealing the deal with a handshake is a part of business that I enjoy. Angry: Here we go. Scoop Jackson, you're an idiot for writing this: http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/commentary/news/story?page=jackson/100720. The media, as a whole, had a field day over what, three sentences by MJ? While I will always be a huge MJ fan, I was a very impressionable 12 year old Chicago sports fan when the Bulls started their dynasty. It's amazing to me how relevant he still is. MJ didn’t go out of his way to make a statement about LeBron-cision. He just dropped a fairly innocent blurb that absolutely was eaten up by the media. I about spit when I saw Scoop leap from MJ as a player to MJ as a GM…WITH A TOTAL BS ARGUMENT!! If he even wanted to come close to drawing that comparison, he would have made some case where Jordan was the only owner of the Bobcats (or at least was surrounded by terrible advisors) and then conjectured about him surrounding himself with top-notch advisors. Playing a game and owning a team – in what universe is he trying to connect the two?!?!? Wildly unsuccessful argument. Atrociously unsuccessful. Scoop trying to rearrange the scenario where MJ was a hometown boy playing in Charlotte is a decent idea, but not for a 1000-ish word column. If he wanted to do this properly, he would have added some bolded headlines throughout his column separating different ideas/breakdowns/talking points/scenarios and would have written a beast-like column about 5x as long as this thrown together piece of trash. I can't believe ESPN pays him to write for them. When Scoop mentions the Magic/Bird/MJ non-love fest, he neglects to mention that MJ was/is friends with Sir Charles and still never wanted to team up with him on-court. Basketball players back in the 80s/90s were the last of the brawlers and battlers, and even they were tamed down from the players before them. Scoop doesn’t understand that free agency and the business of the game (all team sports, in fact) have changed athletes’ allegiances to cities. As a fan, I dislike that, but it’s a reality. Team-jumping due to free agency and trades have a way of diminishing rivalries. I could go on and on. One of the few things I agree with is that LeBron does want to win championships. But is that even up for debate? Seriously. Is there one person who denies that? No. So way to go out on a limb, Scoop. What all the fans are saying is that LeBron is a gigantic wuss; he cannot stay in his hometown and be built around. I thought it was pretty easy to pick up on that sentiment lately. I would go so far as to argue against Jordan personifying “winning in team sports.” Sure, he figured out how to do it, but I think of Russell when I think of team sports and think of MJ when I want to reduce my opponents to crushed, trembling, bawling little girls. Jordan is a destroyer. No doubt about it. He has an unrelenting eye of the tiger. I love that he stayed true to himself in his HOF speech. Even though I don’t feel that speech was as ugly as most perceived it to be, there was enough passion and chip-on-the-shoulder mentality in it to keep us reminded that MJ’s legacy hasn’t just grown in some mythical remembrance of him; that’s how he is. Too bad Scoop doesn't put one-tenth of that same passion into his writing. Stay happy! -T |
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