Hasta La Gadget!

I have enjoyed a lifelong love affair with baseball. Some of my fondest
childhood memories are of collecting baseball cards (with the pink bubble gum), getting autographs of countless players during Spring Training (I still have every one), pouring through the pages of Hy Turkin’s old Baseball Encyclopedia and playing simulated baseball board games like APBA for hours on end. Later in life I even co-authored a series of popular baseball books. To echo the words of the immortal Babe Ruth: “Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world.”

But as passionate as I am about our national pastime, there are some things that need to be changed. Here then is what I hate most about the game I truly Iove:

1. The Hall Of Fame’s 5-Year Waiting Period: Why make a great player like Derek Jeter wait for half a decade before he is eligible for Cooperstown? Are the Lords of Baseball concerned that a player will un-retire after his induction? How cool would that be? Now batting… Hall of Famer Derek Jeter! Don’t like that scenario? Then the Hallowed Hall could pass a new rule: Once inducted you are no longer eligible to play Major League Baseball. Either way, let’s honor those who deserve to be immortalized while the memory of their outstanding career is still fresh in our minds and hearts.

2. All World Series Games Played At Night: Baseball is desperately trying to reach younger fans. Then why are all the Fall Classic games broadcast so late that many kids can’t stay up to watch them? It’s high time to make at least one of the weekend games a day game. Better to sacrifice some prime-time TV revenue now for the longer term benefit of attracting a younger demographic to an aging game.

3. Players Who Don’t Tip Their Cap To The Fans: The home town pitcher has hurled a terrific game but he starts to struggle and the manager needs to give him the hook. The fans are on their feet saluting the pitcher’s outstanding performance as he walks off the mound toward the dugout. A few players in this situation will tip their cap. Once in a while they’ll even doff it. But most players don’t even bother to look up at their adoring fans. Tip Your Cap, Guys! It’s a simple thing to do and it will endear you to your fan base, especially the kids, forever.

4. The Sacrifice Fly Rule: Why isn’t a batter charged with an official at bat when he hits a sacrifice fly? And why is it even called a sacrifice? It is not the same as a sacrifice bunt where it’s obvious that a batter is deliberately giving himself up to move a base runner. As it stands now, if a batter swings away and happens to hit a fly ball that happens to be deep enough to score a runner who happens to be on third, he is credited with a sacrifice fly and no official time at bat. But if the batter hits a fly ball to that very same spot and the base runner is on second and advances to third, the batter is charged with an official 0-for-1 at bat. Time to change this nonsensical rule. Charge the batter with an out, give him an RBI and stop calling the play a sacrifice when it clearly is not.

5. The Wave: It’s the eighth inning. The game is on the line, growing tenser by the moment. So what do the fans do? They start popping up out of their seats, waving their hands in the air and ignoring the drama unfolding right in front of them on the field! Here’s a novel idea: Watch the game! If you feel compelled to perform this hackneyed tradition, why not do it between innings?

6. Showboat Relievers: In football, players are penalized for excessive celebrations. So why does baseball allow showboat relief pitchers who close
out games to perform celebratory rituals on the mound that stick it in the face of the losing team? Fernando Rodney pretending to shoot an imaginary arrow into the sky after saving a game is the poster boy for this offensive behavior. The Commissioner should fine any pitcher who resorts to such bush league theatrics. Take a lesson from Mariano Rivera, who walked off the mound after every one of his record saves with grace and dignity.

7. Video Challenges: What could be more boring than a manager calling time and then trudging ever so slowly onto the field to give his guy in the dugout enough time to review a controversial call and let him know if it’s worth challenging? This slows down the game and, more importantly, robs it of its controversy and excitement. I miss managers rushing out to protest a call, engaging in a nose-to-nose shouting match with the umpire and then getting the old heave-ho. Imagine what the game would have been like with a more docile Bobby Cox or Lou Piniella cooling their jets while some unseen arbiters in New York watched a video replay of a close call and issued their final ruling. I understand the value of technology but baseball is an imperfect game. Players make errors and so do umpires. Dump video challenges and let the brouhahas resume!

8. The All-Star Game Played For World Series Home Field Advantage: Starting players in the Mid-Season Classic rarely if ever play an entire game because managers want to give everyone a chance. So when the game — and home field advantage in the World Series — hang in the balance in the late innings, it’s the reserves who are playing, not the best players who were elected by the fans. How then can this exhibition game’s result be allowed to possibly influence the outcome of games that count the most — in the World Series? It can’t. The team with the best record in baseball during the regular season should enjoy home field advantage in October… period. The All-Star Game used to be special because it was the only time that players from the National and American Leagues competed on the same field. Now with inter-league play, this is commonplace. Maybe inter-league play should be abandoned to make the All-Star Game more significant again. But that’s an argument for another day.

9. The MLB Policy Of Not Selling Alcohol After The 7th Inning: It’s a terrific policy but then why allow the stadium’s premium clubs to continue selling alcohol long after the game is over? The fans in the cheaper seats are encouraged to sober up before the drive home while those in the luxury clubs continue to ply themselves with booze and leave the stadium inebriated! The Commissioner needs to clamp down on every stadium in the game: No selling alcohol after the seventh inning to anyone — from the worst seat in the house to the best.

10. Hitters Stepping Out Of The Batter’s Box After Every Pitch To Adjust Something That Doesn’t Need Adjusting: Baseball is trying to speed up the game. Sending a batter to first with an intentional walk without any pitches being thrown is just a band-aid. The best way to accelerate the action is simple: Keep the batter in the batter’s box! Don’t let him step out to adjust his gloves (or pretend to be doing it), take a practice swing or satisfy any of the neurotic superstitions that many players possess. A batter should only be able to step out of the box when he is hurt or impaired in some way. No more Nomar Garciaparra rituals!

Long live the national pastime — warts and all!

(Bruce Nash is the President of Nash Entertainment, a Hollywood television production company. He is also the co-author of the popular Baseball Hall of Shame book series.)

FLOWER MOUND, Texas (AP) — A North Texas school district is investigating the actions of students at a high school basketball game who held up signs saying “White” and “Power.”

Superintendent Kevin Rogers says in a statement he’s “disheartened” by the actions of some students at Flower Mound High School who held up a placard with the word “White” alongside another that read “Power.”

The Flower Mound boys were playing Plano East on Friday when cellphones captured images of the signs. The images were then circulated on social media.

Plano East is more racially diverse than Flower Mound.

Rogers says a review is underway and that administrators “intend to act on our findings.” He adds that his district has the “highest respect” for Plano East.

Flower Mound won the game, 75-73, in three overtimes.

A bill that would have allowed students to sue their school if they saw a transgender student in a bathroom that did not correspond with the gender he or she or they were assigned at birth failed in the Kentucky state Senate on Thursday.

The bill did not earn the seven votes needed to pass out of the Senate’s education committee, Chris Hartman, the director of the Kentucky LGBT advocacy group Fairness Campaign, told The Huffington Post. Hartman added that both Democrats and Republicans had opposed the bill.

“Once folks know someone who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, it’s far more difficult to oppose legislation that affects them adversely,” he said.

The legislation, introduced last month, would have required schools to “provide separate, private areas designated for use by students based on their biological sex” where students could be in a “state of undress.” The bill proposed allowing students to sue their school for up to $2,500 each time they saw a student who appeared to have a non-matching gender presentation in a facility “designated for use by the biological sex of the aggrieved student.”

State Sen. C.B. Embry (R) introduced the bill after a high school in the state allowed transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.

Henry Brousseau, a transgender 11th grader who testified before the Senate committee on the bill, told The Huffington Post that he had been bullied at school and that he had initially not been allowed to use men’s facilities there. Recently, he said that things had gotten better and that he had been allowed to use facilities for men, which has worked out “terrifically.” Brousseau said that neither he nor the school has had any complaints since he has been allowed to use the men’s restrooms.

The bill’s failure, Brousseau said, sends a message that LGBT individuals are tolerated in Kentucky.

“I know that this is gonna send a message that hate against trans people and LGBT people in general isn’t gonna be tolerated in this state and there’s no place for that in Kentucky,” he said.

The Florida legislature is currently considering similar legislation, which would prohibit transgender individuals from using bathrooms and other facilities that don’t correlate with his or her or their gender presentation. Under that bill, transgender individuals could receive a $1,000 fine or be sentenced to a year in prison.

When television was in its early stages, the role of the nightly news anchor came to fruition. Journalism legends began with CBS’ Walter Cronkite and eventually led to the female anchor, such as Wellesley alumna Diane Sawyer and Yahoo News’ Katie Couric. Every night, viewers place their trust in these reporters to bring them the news of the day without embellishment or bias. Brian Williams has broken this trust by embellishing his stories, and as a result, broke the contract between anchor and viewer. Rather than providing us with the facts, he weaves tales, such as saving puppies from burning buildings and witnessing atrocities, that paint him as a hero.

Recent reports suggest that Williams embellished the details of several stories — most notably a story in which he claims that his helicopter was shot down by enemy fire while covering the Iraq War in 2003. Additional reports have come under scrutiny, including Williams’ coverage of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 — the coverage that earned his show a Peabody Award among other honors. In Williams’ report, he claimed that he suffered from dysentery after ingesting flood water — these claims were later refuted by an EMS worker who said that he did not recall a single case of gastroenteritis during Hurricane Katrina and the following month. In an earlier report, Williams claimed that he rescued a puppy from a burning home as a teenage volunteer firefighter. He later contradicts himself in an interview with GQ, Williams claims he saved not one, but two puppies from the very same fire.

In light of these allegations and a pending internal investigation, Williams and NBC released the following statement last week:

In the midst of a career spent covering and consuming news, it has become painfully apparent to me that I am presently too much a part of the news, due to my actions.

As Managing Editor of NBC Nightly News, I have decided to take myself off of my daily broadcast for the next several days, and Lester Holt has kindly agreed to sit in for me to allow us to adequately deal with this issue. Upon my return, I will continue my career-long effort to be worthy of the trust of those who place their trust in us.

As someone who watched the news every morning and evening growing up, I put a lot of trust in my news anchors. I trust that the news the anchors tell me is a factual and accurate depiction of what is happening in the world. Now, I am not saying that I believe Brian Williams is not a talented reporter — he would not have gotten to where he is if he was not talented. Rather, his embellishments undermine the validity of all of his stories and elicit doubt from his viewers.

The doubt garnered by the allegations surrounding Williams has inevitably caused a stir, not only for NBC, but for other news channels as well. Now, viewers are a bit more cautious about blindly trusting their anchors. I believe that due to Williams’ prominent position in the field of journalism, doubt has been casted on other news anchors. If Brian Williams can pull it off, who is to say that other journalists are not or will not do the same?

I do not think there is a way to prevent the fabrication or embellishment of news stories. It is indisputable that a more dramatic story sells the most papers — or in today’s age, generates more views and “likes.” Viewers cannot really control what the media distributes, but they can check the facts after the story is released. My mother, a former journalist, always told me to check the facts before I render any judgments or opinions regarding a news story. While we both have faith in the institution of journalism, it is still a business — a business whose the sole objective is to sell the story. With this objective, I believe that embellishment could be used to sell a story more effectively. All news stories are given through a lens — a lens that differs depending on the news company and anchor — and viewers need to acknowledge and see past the lens.

While I believe in second chances, I think Williams broke the trust he had with his viewers on multiple occasions and therefore does not deserve a reprieve. It is one thing to make a mistake, acknowledge it and move forward. It is an entirely different ball game to knowingly commit the same act multiple times and not acknowledge it. Despite the fact that Williams felt the need to prove himself, having assumed the anchor desk less than a year prior to Hurricane Katrina, it is no excuse to fabricate or embellish a story. To paraphrase Robert de Niro’s character, Jack Byrnes from Meet the Parents, once someone is outside of the circle, they cannot reenter. I believe that Brian Williams broke the circle of trust between himself and NBC viewers, and should not return to the NBC Nightly News.

This post was first published in The Wellesley News, Wellesley College’s student newspaper.

Rovio is about to try its luck with a Candy Crush-LIKE game, I suppose we should say. Not like it’s the same game – and not like there isn’t a precedent for creating games like this, like Bejeweled turning into a game about candy, or anything like that. And forbid it that there ever be a game like Bejeweled that … Continue reading