Regarding Armando Galarraga's perfect game

I promised myself that this wouldn't be a sports-only blog, but sports are just about the easiest thing to write a few lines about now and then. That said, I'm also still number-crunching and trying to figure out how to properly express how I feel about Daisuke Matsuzaka.

Last night, Nicole and I went to trivia with a couple of our friends, as we do almost every Wednesday night. My buddy Darren and I were BSing about the season so far, and fantasy sports, and just baseball in general when he got a message from another of his friends about a perfect game being ruined in Detroit by a bad call from an umpire. Having watched the final innings of both the Braden and Halladay perfect games on MLB Network (who are doing a bang-up job this season, by the way), I thought that the message must have gotten garbled, because three perfectos in one year (barely over two months, at that!) seemed just short of impossible. I checked the MLB headlines on my cell phone, read the short blurb, and couldn't wait to see the highlights when I got home.

By now, it's all old news. I assume that even the great majority of the nation's non-sports fans even know what happened last night. I also assume that 99% of the population feels that Galarraga deserves to be awarded the perfect game upon some kind of ruling by Commissioner Bud Selig (the other 1% being total jerks - people in Philly once booed Santa; these people exist).

So to add my thoughts to the tens of thousands of other bloggers who are also writing about this today:

Umpire Jim Joyce apologized. He admitted he was wrong, and he legitimately sounded very, very sorry for missing the call. Honest apologies are so hard to come by today in any facet of life, and his was from the heart. Everyone needs to give the guy a little slack. The poor bastard took the field in tears today in Detroit. Was it a big deal? Absolutely. But only in perspective to sport. Nobody got hurt. Nobody's livelihood was destroyed.

In the long-term, this is almost a better story - no offense to Mark Buehrle, for instance, but in 10 years, people are going to remember this game, not his. Even if Bud Selig doesn't overturn this (and he absolutely should, of course), the people who matter - the fans - will always know the truth. I think that as far as we're all concerned, it was a perfect game, official or not. Really, that's what matters.

You know what would be kind of cool, though? If Bud Selig does overturn this, then Galarraga would have the first regulation-length 28-hitter perfect game in history, if you look at it that way!

So yes, I feel that Bud Selig "absolutely should" overturn the decision, but I honestly don't know that he can, because he'd be opening himself up to criticism every time a controversial play occurs and he does nothing.

But I think that this is a very, very special exception:

1. It's recent. It's not worth going back to overturn the Vince Coleman call in the 1985 World Series at this point, because it wouldn't mean anything. This is fresh and relevant.

2. The umpire admits he was wrong and clearly wishes he could go back in time. This wasn't a matter of being screened by a defensive player and not seeing things clearly. He blew it, he admitted he blew it, and there's no disputing that he blew it.

3. It didn't affect the outcome of the game. Galarraga retired the next player, preserving the score at 3-0 and securing the win. It doesn't reverse a loss or take a run off the scoreboard, and it doesn't affect any of the players' stats adversely other than the batter who was incorrectly awarded a hit. I'm sure the batter, Jason Donald, would happily give up his 1-for-3 line in the box score for an 0-for-3 in order to "correct" history. Likewise, I'm sure that Trevor Crowe, who made the as-of-now "official" final out, wouldn't mind erasing an 0-4 for an 0-3, as minor as that change would be.

4. Galarraga was a class act in the face of a horrible set of circumstances. Things would have gotten incredibly bad if the pitcher had been Carlos Zambrano, for instance. Joyce would have ended up in the hospital, and Zambrano would have ended up in jail.

5. To not change it would be an incredibly short-sighted, completely dickish move by MLB.

And given the way Selig handles things, I'm sad to say it's what I expect to happen. But we'll see, and as a baseball fan I'm definitely going to keep my fingers crossed that Selig does, in fact, overrule the play.

Simply, and for no other reason, because it's the obvious and right thing to do.

Glen "Big Baby" Davis is the best physical comedian in the NBA.

That is all.

Pearl Jam covering Van Halen (mp3 download)

Hot off the presses (well, a couple of days ago, but it's new to me)! Some of you guys might enjoy this. Sounds like an audience recording, very good quality - this is a 320 kbps MP3.

Pearl Jam covering Van Halen's "Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love" live in Hartford, CT on May 15, 2010.

"Ain't Talkin' 'Bout Love"

fast food foibles

So with Nicole out of town, I decided to give in to my cravings and find some greasy food. We're usually relatively health-conscious and try to limit ourselves to one "outside" meal a week, usually pre- or post- weekend movie trip, but while the cat's away ...

So I ended up going to Wendy's, because it's only about a five minute drive from the apartment. I toyed with the idea of going to Five Guys in Madison, but the weather was crummy and I didn't want to drive all the way out there to either:

1. Sit by myself and rush through a giant burger and (way too many) fries just so I could get back home to listen to the Bruins game on-line, or

2. Drive there, get the burger, bring it home, and "enjoy" everything semi-cold instead.

I got the classic double, small sized, and something was off with the fries. They were really soft and kinda gross, not crisp the way they should be. And I just didn't enjoy the burger, for whatever reason. When Nicole called to say goodnight, I told her about the experience and I think she nailed it: we're so used to eating "good" fast food at this point (like Chipotle) that we've lost our taste for the burger chains. I love a good cheeseburger, but I've become too picky.

For $8, I could have gone to Costco and gotten an entire rotisserie chicken *and* had $3 left over for ... I don't know. Donuts or something.

Plus the Bruins lost anyway, and my feet got soaked through my sneakers while taking Fritz out for a walk out on the wet grass.

I also realized that I could have just driven downtown (or whatever that area is in regard to Morristown - using the word "downtown" is a bit of brave optimism, I think) to get some fantastic empanadas at Raoul's instead.

Total fail.

Oh, well.

In which we attend a taping of "The Daily Show"

If you're reading this via Facebook and the links/photos don't work, you can also read this entry here: 

http://comeaujim.blogspot.com/

Hello, internet. How have you been? It's been a while.

So yesterday was a pretty good day all around, I'd say. Not only was it Star Wars Day (May 4th, as in "May the Fourth be with you"), which would have made it plenty awesome on its own, but Nicole and I had tickets to sit in the audience for a taping of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart".

I've always liked Jon Stewart, and not just because we agree on so many political issues. He seems to "get it" - funny, engaging, smart, and into a lot of indie/alternative music. A good guy all around. One of his favorite bands is one of mine, as well: Boston's own Buffalo Tom, the final band to perform on his pre-TDS talk show (a quick Google search returned no results for the video - anyone care to look more carefully to find it for me?).

A couple of months ago, I saw a Facebook message from the show saying that tickets were available for early May, so I headed over to the TDS website and furiously began filling out my ticket request so I wouldn't miss out. Then we waited, waited, and waited some more for the day to finally come - we did not go home disappointed. (Meaning, specifically, his guest for the show was not comedian Richard Lewis. When we got confirmation that we had tickets, I was afraid we wouldn't get a good guest. To that end, my definition of lousy, boring, uninteresting guests uses Richard Lewis as a measuring stick.)

An aside: getting into NYC is a total pain in the ass. It's a wonderful place ... you know, despite the Yankees and most of their fans. But anyway. I have a blast every time I go into the city (if you'll excuse the choice of words, given the recent attempted car bombing), but getting there shouldn't take nearly as long as it does. We drove to Newark, took the PATH to the WTC site, and then took the subway to 50th. Grand total, about two and a half hours. Granted, there was a fair amount of waiting for the PATH train to leave Newark station, but still. (In "Date Night" with Tina Fey and Steve Carrell, there's a joke about how Fey's character, a real-estate agent, knows full well she is lying to her clients about how long it takes to get from New Jersey to Manhattan.)

By the time we got to the studio, which is just far enough from the craziness of Times Square to make you almost forget you're in Manhattan, we found ourselves facing the perfect combination of problems: we were both hungry and early. We found a Thai place (Heng2 Thai Bistro) about a block away and took advantage of one of life's overlooked treats: the lunch menu. So much great food for a ridiculously low cost, plus a tall glass of "Thai Iced Coffee", which sounds like code-speak for an underaged college student who wants to order alcohol without a valid ID but is, in reality, roughly five tablespoons of coffee grounds in a single glass of water, mixed with another five tablespoons of sugar. It was thick. And the sticky rice? By the end of the meal, after it had been sitting on its plate for a while, I literally had to cut it with a knife to take a bite. Still, it was an unexpected treat and we highly recommend it if you ever find yourself in that neck of the (paved over, highly industrial) woods.

After lunch we had enough time to walk to FAO Schwartz, but not enough time to really explore it. Plus we didn't have our camera (more on that later). We have to go back, because we were not able to see the part of the store used for the piano scene in "Big", and because of the very important discovery that you can make your own muppets, which we are absolutely going to do sometime much sooner than later.

We headed back to the Daily Show studio and arrived at about 3 p.m., and there were a few dozen people already waiting in line. Within 15 minutes of our arrival, the line doubled in size. The picture I linked to is not my own, and I don't know when it was taken. There was a stanchion set up to guide the line, and when we arrived we were literally under the "733" on the left-hand side of the awning.

We waited in line for about two hours before being let into the studio, as they're very organized but pretty strict about how they go about filling the audience.

If you're in a group but waiting for people to show up, they have to be there and in line with you by 4:30, no exceptions. At 4:30, staff members take their attendance check-list (the list of names of those who registered for tickets on-line) and move down the line, handing out physical tickets (no more than little slips of paper with a number on them, really). If you're the fourth person in your group but don't have a ticket because you're weren't in line at 4:30, even though your three friends are there and have proof that 4 tickets were requested, too bad. Off to the stand-by line with you!

No outside food or drink is allowed, you can't chew gum in the studio, and all electronics must be turned off before entering the studio. We left our camera at home because the website and ticket-confirmation e-mail specifically said that all cameras were forbidden. Realistically, though, they tell you you can bring the camera into the studio but it must be off (cell phones, iPods, etc. too) before you walk through the door. While in line, staffers inform attendees (several times, to make sure the message is not missed) that anyone who even looks like they're using anything electronic in the studio to take pictures will have their gear confiscated and held until after the show, and they'll have to show staff members photos on the devices before they're allowed to take their gear back. If there are photos of the studio found, attendees are told, they will be made to erase them immediately.

They are not messing around!

I wish we'd taken our camera anyway for pictures during the rest of the trip, but we figured we'd go the "better safe but sorry" route.

Upon going through the front door, all attendees pass through a metal detector and into the studio, directly to the left. The studio itself was exactly as I'd envisioned it in my head. The entrance leads to a short set of stairs (maybe 4 or 5 steps) down to the floor. To the immediate right is a staging area used for bits such as Jon's hilarious impression of Glenn Beck (though the chalkboard was nowhere to be found during our visit). In front of that, to the right as you enter the studio, is what you see on TV: the desk, the glass globe where the TDS correspondents sit, the monitors. Seeing it in person was a bit of a "holy shit" moment, I have to admit.

Just beyond the desk as you enter the studio is the first section of audience seating, to the left of Jon's desk (or to his right, depending on your perspective). To the left is the main seating area, which is where Nicole and I were placed. That's another rule, actually: they ask you to please not ask for different seats, and to sit where you're directed. They acknowledge that at various times one's view may be blocked by cameras or props, but that it's the nature of the beast, and it can't be avoided. There are many TV screens hanging from the ceiling showing what's going on at the desk anyway (including the various video clips used during the show, etc. - what you see on the screen is what viewers will see at home when the show airs every night).

I've drawn a very crude sketch of the studio layout. The two red dots?



That's where Nicole and I sat. We could not have asked for better seats. We were slightly off center, four rows up. We could see around *and* over the cameraman who shoots the straight-on desk angle, which was fantastic, because when we have tickets for various events, we always seem to end up sitting behind Kevin McHale and Frankenstein. But not this time!

The show starts at about 5:45 or so. After the audience had been seated, the music in the studio (mostly classic rock - Led Zeppelin, the Stones, etc.) seemed to get louder and louder until the warm-up comedian came out to chat with the audience and go over some ground rules. He explained that the audience had to be very active during the show, because watching passively and laughing to yourself at home is a very different experience than being in the studio. When you listen to the audience when you're at home, it's an important part of the organic experience of hearing a joke. The reaction in the studio helps to get a reaction at home. He encouraged everyone to have a great time, and to laugh heartily without faking it. This is actually a very easy thing to do once you're there and "in the moment" with the 230-or-so other audience members.

There are microphones hanging over all sections of the audience to pick up the response to Stewart's "performance", but there is NO "applause" sign anywhere in the studio. I can assure you that the energy from the audience is not fake or forced, and that the reaction to the videos and jokes is very natural. It gets loud in there. The stagehands do a quick countdown to let everyone know when the commercial break will be ending, so everyone can make noise at the beginning of the next segment, but that's it.

After the warm-up comedian did his thing, Jon came out to answer a few audience questions (most of which, on this afternoon, were of the "I was wondering if you had any advice for someone who ..." variety). He tried to shrug these off a bit, in his typical self-deprecating "why would anyone thing I'm an expert" kind of style, but he was a good sport. He did warn everyone, though, that his guest (former first lady Rosalynn Carter) was violent and swearing a blue streak backstage (funny, because she's in her 80s and could not possibly have been more soft-spoken, kind, and warm).

Literally seconds after taking the last question from the audience, he went behind the desk and the show started almost immediately. No countdown, no anything, just time to go!

Watching the show on TV, you know that Stewart often swears during the taping, but it was a little weird to actually hear the words instead of just the bleeps.

I was a little disappointed that the second segment was a recorded one, as I was hoping we'd see John Oliver, Larry Wilmore, or better yet John Hodgman. Oh well. I don't know if Jon sees these segments prior to their becoming part of the show, because he sat at his desk watching it on his monitor along with the audience, and he was clearly enjoying himself and laughing as well as it aired. After leading into a commercial, he pointed to the top of the stairs where we had all entered and introduced Jason Jones, the correspondent who had produced the segment.

Between segments they played more music, to which Jon would frequently play pencil drums or mouth the words while preparing for the next bit. They played Foo Fighters and Bush when we were there, but not whole songs. Very little time is wasted, and the 30 minutes of TV that aired last night was actually taped in about 23, I'd guess. Intro, segment 1, outro, short break, intro, segment 2, outro, short break, intro, guest, outro, short break, intro, Moment of Zen, credits, go home. The show was over so quickly I could barely believe we were already done.

After the show, Jon thanked everyone for coming and headed backstage. As we got up to leave, I went over to one of his staff members and handed her two DVDs to give to Jon: I had burned him MP3s of 24 Buffalo Tom bootlegs that I'd acquired over the years on one DVD; on the other, 17 Tom Waits shows. I wrote a short note simply thanking him for the great work he did. I hope he got them. I didn't put my name on it or anything (I wasn't fishing for a handshake or autograph or anything), but if one of his staff members ever finds this blog entry someday, perhaps they can let him know it was me who was responsible for the discs, and that I hope he enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed being part of the Daily Show's audience.

Perhaps we'll get to attend another taping in a few months, when we're eligible again. Or perhaps we'll see the Colbert Report ... my fingers are crossed!

If you missed it, here's the episode directly from Comedy Central.

Still alive

Over two months since my last entry?  Seriously?