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We return you now to Riccardo Muti, music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. This is from 2012 when he threw out the first pitch at a Cubs game. I find it adorable that Muti seems to love the Cubs, particularly since he's from Italy and didn't grow up on baseball or perhaps ever played it at all. But we know now that he's a lefty. Not the same form on the mound (or front thereof) as on the podium, but he did get it to the plate. By the way, listen closely in the background as he walks to the mount. The P.A. is playing Beethoven's 5th Symphony.
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How cool, I went to reply to a a tweet by Laura Ingraham, and it turns out I've been blocked by her. (The only thing I can figure, since I rarely pay attention to what she says and have only commented on her a couple of times, is I wonder if it was the one that I wrote about her perhaps making a Nazi salute to Trump at the Republican Convention...) That aside, it turns out that the dear one has just slammed a high school kid for not getting accepted into four colleges. And not just any high school kid, but one who was a victim of a mass shooting where 17 of his friends were killed. No, really, and yes, she's an adult.  Two things though: 1) Ms. Ingraham left out that he actually did get into three schools. And 2) ace commentator that she is, she got his GPA wrong! And made it lower than it is. The article she quotes from says very clearly "4.2". And yes, you're reading this correctly: his grades are 4.2 (on a scale of 4.0) and she's slamming him! I mean, seriously, 4.2 is great. And even if had merely been a "paltry" 4.1, that would have been absolutely terrific. (Oh, and never mind that she singles out him not getting into UCLA, which last year only had a 14.6% acceptance rate for out-of-state students, which he is.) By the way, not getting accepted in every school one applies to is no big deal. For the record, when I applied to colleges and grad school, I got accepted into Northwestern, Stanford and UCLA -- but I was rejected by my safety school! I have absolutely no idea why. And I didn't care, it was my last choice. It happens. What doesn't tend to happen is for high school kids to get ridiculed for it in the national media, especially after being a victim in a mass shooting. Ahhh, dear Laura. What a gem. And to help honor the occasion, here are the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and their conductor Riccardo Muti (in a Cubs jersey, mind you) playing “Take Me Out to the Ballgame.” I think this was done in honor of last year’s World Series since it was posted by the CSO on November 6, 2016. Also adding to the last-minute sense of quickly throwing this together is that the musicians are in street clothes -- though many are wearing Cubs paraphernalia or Cubbie blue. What I particularly like about this, regardless of who'sperforming, is that It's a fun arrangement, too, not trying to overwhelm such a small, charming song with full orchestral bombast, but arranged with an almost old-timey feel. And maestro Muti seems to be having a good time with it all. Play ball! I tend to enjoy watching a show called Bar Rescue, which is on the newly-renamed Paramount Network (formerly Spike TV). If you’ve never seen it, this bar expert Jon Taffer is called into failing bars, and revamps them. The show can get confrontational – actually, sometimes intensely so – though honestly, I prefer it when it’s not overly angry, and you like the owners of the bars he’s rescuing. (He’s a confrontational guy himself, though in fairness it’s often needed because many owners are not only so head-blocking stubborn, but have let their bars get run down to such serious levels that polite suggestions aren't the answer.) Anyway, I just finished watching this week’s show that I had recorded. It was an L.A. bar and in the Valley, and as they showed the place from the outside, I thought, “Wait, that looks familiar, I think I may actually know that place…” And – yes! For the very first time since I've been watching the show, I've actually been in the bar they're rescuing. It’s Paladino’s in Tarzana, which has been around since the '60s. I've only been there once, two years ago, but it was seedy enough to remember. My friend Jeff Melvoin, who I've mentioned here a few times -- the showrunner on such TV series as Designated Survivor, Army Wives, Alias and others -- is in a friendly band called The Mavens, which occasionally plays around town, and Paladino's is the first place I saw them. They only played there once, I believe. I could understand why. And the episode shows it, too. Actually, the episode doesn't fully show that. Because when The Mavens played there, they packed the place. But most bands don't, and the bar is a near-empty cavern for most of the show. Happily, it’s a fun episode, because the owners are good guys. Just totally clueless. Their day job is as medical research scientists. Because they are very decent folks and people who's work is pretty noble, researching a cure for cancer, Taffer likes them a lot. But he's utterly frustrated by them. So, it’s less confrontational than most, and a whole lot less yelling. But particularly enjoyable for that. If you’re interested, it repeats next Sunday, April 1. Set the DVR. It’ll be on the Paramount Network, airing at 9PM Los Angeles time. The episode is titled ‘Weird Science.’ Here's a clip. It's fun watching Taffer's bewildered frustration build, trying to remain polite which is not his natural state. Around the 1:00-mark watch his expression as the two owners (John and Jonathan) debate the minutiae of whether someone got a pizza slice. Here's an enjoyable follow-up to the piece I wrote about this morning, Daniel Brown's article on being sportswriting competitors with his wife. The update was written by Lisa Bonos of the Washington Post, who wisely called up Susan Slusser to get the other side of the story. You can read that here.
I want to have another Trump-free morning. And this fits the bill as effectively as anything. In fact, it's another baseball story -- but please don't run from it. It's a total joy. And not what you might otherwise think from that description.
This is an article by Daniel Brown, a sportswriter in Northern California for the Bay Area Mercury News, writing about his biggest competition at another local paper, Susan Slusser, who's the beat sportswriter for the San Francisco Chronicle. And she's a formidable competitor at that -- accomplished, driven, tough, and yet so admired that in 2012, in this male-dominated field, she became the first woman to be elected president of the Baseball Writers Association of American. One other thing: the two are married. This is a hilarious, endearing, wonderful, interesting, fun, loving and gracious article. It's titled, "Help! I married my dreaded baseball rival (a love story)." He writes openly and happily about being regularly scooped by his wife, and shamelessly using her name to develop a rapport with athletes who he knows adore her for her "fairness, accuracy, accountability, comic timing and ferocious work ethic." Among several examples, for instance, he writes, "If I drop her name, players bounce up. I once approached Jose Guillen at his locker and told him I was married to Susan Slusser. He sprang out of his chair to hug me." There's even a very funny story about the one time he lucked out into scooping his wife. That's a rarity, however, since most of the article is filled with other tales, like the even more amusing story about the rumor of the trade with Stephen Piscotty. (Personal digression. I love talking about Stephen Piscotty. But not for the reason you think. He used to play for the hated St. Louis Cardinals, the favorite team of the inveterate Chris Dunn. We'd talk about Piscotty often whenever the Cubs would play their despicable rivals, and I finally explained one day why I always liked bringing Piscotty up. It's because his name reminds me of a five-year-old kid trying to say, "spaghetti.") It's just a terrific article. Do yourself a favor and don't avoid it just because you may not like sports, or baseball. You can read it here. |
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AuthorRobert J. Elisberg is a political commentator, screenwriter, novelist, tech writer and also some other things that I just tend to keep forgetting. 
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