How To Report the News

LOL…this is pure genius.  After being forced to watch local news broadcasts last semester courtesy of my Intro to Broadcast Journalism course, I’d have to say this video is more instructive than anything I learned in class.

***One word of warning:  There are one or two objectionable words used about halfway through.***

A Great Quote by Murray Rothbard

I just read a good summarization of war by Murray Rothbard, a noted economist.

My own view of war can be put simply: a just war exists when a people tries to ward off the threat of coercive domination by another people, or to overthrow an already-existing domination. A war is unjust, on the other hand, when a people try to impose domination on another people, or try to retain an already existing coercive rule over them.

I agree.

My Time at Winter Warm Up

This weekend I was again privileged to attend the St. Louis Cardinals annual Winter Warm Up event.  This is a three day event in downtown St. Louis put on by the ballclub for their charity, Cardinals Care.  You can buy a $40 pass to gain access to the event, and there you can mingle with the players, get autographs, buy memorabilia, attend sessions about the club, and get a little taste of baseball in the offseason.  It’s a great event, one of the best in St. Louis, and the Cardinals do a fantastic job of putting it on.  I was there last year, and gave a detailed analysis of all three days.  This year, I’m just going to give a broad overview of my time there.

This year there was a little added intrigue, because Cardinals hitting coach Mark McGwire was in attendance on Sunday, which was his first public appearance since he went on the MLB Network to confess that he had used steroids as a player.  So there were a lot of people in attendance for that, including members of the national media.  It was pretty much a circus.  But more on that in a minute.

Last year I was pretty excited to procure the autographs of some past, present, and future Cardinals players, like Jack Clark, John Tudor, Todd Worrell, Alan Benes, Andy Benes, and David Freese.  I also stood in line like two hours to get Brett Wallace’s autograph, and then he got traded this year in the Matt Holliday deal.  A large portion of the autographs offered at the Warm Up are free, as long as you are willing to wait in long lines to get them.  And this year the Cardinals had actually lowered the prices on the autographs that you paid for…the only one unchanged was Albert Pujols, who had the most expensive autograph at $175.  The way it works is that you purchase an autograph ticket ahead of time, and then you can get one item signed for every autograph ticket you have, up to three tickets.  I got one ticket each for Adam Wainwright, Chris Carpenter, Kyle Lohse, Jason Motte, and former Cardinal Ray Lankford.  I was going for mostly pitching this year.  The only free autograph I got was from Mitchell Boggs, a younger player who is likely to be on the team in some capacity in April.  They had a lot of minor league players from the Cardinals farm system there, too, which I thought was really cool.

Other than the autographs I paid for, though, I really didn’t care too much about getting signatures.  The big things I was looking forward too were the Q & A with Cards GM John Mozeliak, the Q & A with manager Tony LaRussa, and the appearance by McGwire.  We did go to a session on the Cardinals museum that was pretty cool.  They talked about items they had procured in the last year, including  a uniform worn by former Cardinal Jim Bottomley.

The Q & A with Mozeliak was excellent, with one exception.  This year the venue was moved from the Millenium Hotel to the Hyatt.  Last year, the Q & A with Mozeliak took place in the main auditorium, where plenty of seating was available.  This year, though, they had some of the sessions in the presentation rooms, which were much smaller and had limited seating.  Fortunately, my friend Ray and I got there early enough to get good seats, but there were plenty of people who had to stand.  It was kind of neat because where we were seated was right next to where the sports writers were standing.  We saw Derrick Gould and Joe Strauss, from the Post-Dispatch, among others.  Anyway, Mozeliak, in addition to being what I feel is an excellent GM, is also a very forthright and honest person, and very funny.  He talked for a minute about the Holliday signing, and then opened it up for questions.

I enjoyed what he shared on the Holliday deal.  He talked about how Matt had made clear that money wasn’t the only factor in negotiations, that the length of contract that many fans had questions about came because he wanted to sign in a city he could call home and retire in.  He wanted to be a part of the community, somewhere where he could put down some roots, which was a reason why Mozeliak said that his (Holliday’s) camp was pushing for a long term deal.  He said Holliday really liked St. Louis and had expressed a desire to stay here, and felt like this was a city that he would like to be a part of.  I thought that was cool.

Many of the other questions surrounded the Cardinals plans to build the remainder of the team for the 2010 season.  A few people asked about when they were going to resign Pujols, and Mozeliak made it clear that while nothing is certain, the club is going to make every effort and already is working on crunching the numbers.  The other thing I thought was interesting is that he said Jaime Garcia was our fifth starter, which hasn’t been made clear yet.  Now, he also said they were looking at all options, so things could change between now and spring training, but he was pretty firm about Garcia being granted an opportunity to be in the rotation.

The LaRussa Q & A was also good, although he was an hour late for it.  He wasn’t quite as concrete on our fifth starter, but he did mention Garcia as a top candidate.  I like Tony.  He’s also funny…he’s got a self-deprecating sense of humor that got quite a few chuckles out of the audience.  He really didn’t have any earth shattering revelations.  He also didn’t take any questions from the fans…he took all questions from the M.C.  He did talk about McGwire’s work as a hitting coach, explaining that he had an unorthodox approach but one that Tony felt would be effective with the Cardinals.

The McGwire appearance was nuts.  When LaRussa was done, there was still an hour or so before McGwire was scheduled to appear.  We had good seats in the main auditorium, so I just stayed put.  Ray had to go get Matt Holliday’s autograph, but I waited for McGwire.   I heard later that by the time he arrived there were over 7,000 people on hand to hear him speak…I counted like 7 or 8 television cameras in the back of the room, and there were several national media people in attendance.  All the seats were full, and people were lined around the room like 3 or 4 deep.  When he came out everyone went nuts, giving him a standing ovation for a minute or so before he could even speak.  Then, after everything he said people would cheer and applaud.

He really didn’t say much.  He spoke briefly about the steroids controversy, stating that he had made a mistake and encouraging kids to stay away from steroids.  Then he talked about what he hoped to do with the Cardinals hitters, and that was pretty much it.  When he walked off the stage people flooded him for autographs, but he was ushered out of the room pretty quick to do a press conference with all the reporters.

Two other sessions we attended were Bill DeWitt Jr’s presentation on the state of the ball club, and Jeff Luhnow’s update on the Cardinals minor league system.  Both were fantastic.  DeWitt talked a bit about the Cardinals revenue, and how despite being 24th in terms of households in their market amongst major league ball clubs, the Cardinals were in the top 10 in revenue, and that came from the fans and their support of the Birds.  He said that no other club in any of the four major sports has such a difference between where they stand amongst households in their market and their revenue.  That allows the Cardinals to compete for free agents like Holliday.  He also talked about the Cardinals from a business standpoint and how things look, and right now the future looks pretty bright.  The Cardinals have a lot of their top tier players under contract for the next several seasons, they’ve got a strong minor league system, and they should be competitive for years to come.

Luhnow, the Director for Scouting and Player Development, brought in his staff to talk about the Cardinals work in the draft, their development of international players, and their minor league ball clubs.  This was one of my favorite sessions, because first it opened up my eyes to how much the Cardinals minor league system not only has contributed, but how much it is set to contribute in the future.  We have one of the youngest minor league systems in the major leagues, and a lot of bright young prospects coming up through our ranks.  Shelby Miller, Lance Lynn, Tyler Norrick, Pete Kozma….the Cardinals have a lot of depth in their farm clubs.

Overall, I was extremely impressed with the Cardinals front office.  Not only were Mozeliak, DeWitt, and Luhnow open and honest, and all willing to take multiple questions from fans, but the picture they laid out made me, as a Cardinals fan, pretty happy with the direction the club is going.  Mo has done a fantastic job of putting the core pieces in place to make the Cardinals competitive every year, DeWitt and company have really done a good job of keeping a balanced budget, and prices reasonable, while committing to winning.  And Luhnow has taken what was, several years ago, a very weak farm system and turned it into what is, in my opinion, one of the strongest farm systems in the major leagues.  In spite of the fact the Cardinals rarely draft high, due to them always being competitive, it sounds like they still make smart picks and know how to properly develop players.  The Cardinals were helped a lot last year by young players and those same players are set to make an impact this year.  Colby Rasmus, Jason Motte, Mitchell Boggs, David Freese, Jaime Garcia, Brendan Ryan….all were drafted or developed in the Cardinals system, and all will be contributors this year to what is likely to be a playoff baseball team.

I really enjoy Winter Warm Up.  It’s a great event for fans, and I applaud the Cardinals for the first class job they do putting it on.  Now here’s to hoping next year’s event will be celebrating a World Series team.

Wizards With Weapons

I won’t lie…I’m not a fan of the NBA.  Haven’t been since Michael Jordan hung up his Air Jordan’s and retired, and even when he was playing, I could have been at best described as a very passive fan.  Last year, I did watch a few playoff games, and I think the sport is coming back from a vacuum that was created by Jordan’s retirement.  Nonetheless, I probably won’t ever be much more than a mediocre basketball fan.  St. Louis has no professional basketball team, and even if it did I probably wouldn’t pay much more attention than I do currently.  I don’t dislike basketball, I just don’t care about it as much as I do other sports.

That said, I watched with some interest the hoopla surrounding Washington Wizards guard Gilbert Arenas, who was suspended recently by the NBA for being in possession of firearms in the Wizards locker room at the Verizon Center.  Arenas allegedly brought four unloaded guns into the locker room as part of a practical joke, and another loaded weapon was brandished by teammate Javaris Crittenton (Crittenton denies the story).  When word got out about the incident, Arenas made a motion on court, mimicking the firing of a pistol, which drew even more criticism.  Arenas was promptly suspended without pay by NBA Commissioner David Stern, who released this statement:

The possession of firearms by an NBA player in an NBA arena is a matter of the utmost concern to us. I initially thought it prudent to refrain from taking immediate action because of the pendency of a criminal investigation involving the office of the United States Attorney for the District of Columbia and the Metropolitan Police Department, and the consideration of this matter by a grand jury sitting in the District of Columbia. For the same reason, I directed the Wizards to refrain from taking any action….Although it is clear that the actions of Mr. Arenas will ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse, his ongoing conduct has led me to conclude that he is not currently fit to take the court in an NBA game. Accordingly, I am suspending Mr. Arenas indefinitely, without pay, effective immediately pending the completion of the investigation by the NBA.

Now, I’m not here to defend Gilbert Arenas.  He has, by all accounts, been known to engage in juvenile and infantile behavior that most adults learn to refrain from after the age of five.  For instance, he once defecated in a rookie’s shoe as a practical joke.  And stole the wheels off a teammates car.  Further, any fool knows that guns aren’t toys to be used in practical jokes.  Using his guns, loaded or not, as a set piece in a practical joke is an incredibly boneheaded move.  Carrying a gun is a heavy responsibility, and Arenas should know better than to treat it lightly.

And I also understand that the NBA, under its collective bargaining agreement, has the right to discipline players for carrying firearms to the arena or the practice facility.  Private enterprises, whether it’s a local grocery store or the Washington Wizards, should have the right to choose whether or not customers or employees can frequent their places of business while in possession of firearms.

All of that aside, I think this is the most overblown story since Balloon Boy.  While according to the contractual agreement he was under Arenas should have known better than to brandish firearms on the premises of the Verizon Center, to act like a player practicing his constitutional right is just a horrific act is ridiculous.  The Constitution permits Gilbert Arenas to pack a pistol if he wants too.  And for David Stern to state that the possession of firearms by an NBA player excludes him from being fit to take the court in an NBA game is just silly.  Do the folks at the Verizon Center REALLY feel less safe knowing that Arenas had a pistol in the locker room?  I doubt it, and those who do are simply being reactionary.  You are much more likely to get hit by a car on the way to the arena than to be shot while there.

Should Arenas receive some sort of suspension for violating the rules?  I can buy that.  What I don’t buy is all this talk that his career is now in jeopardy, that he should be suspended for the rest of the season, that fans heard the word “gun” and the rest of the story didn’t matter, all they care about is the fact that an NBA player shouldn’t carry a weapon.   Stern said his conduct will “ultimately result in a substantial suspension, and perhaps worse…” For a rules violation?  Or because the violation involved a right revered and guarded by the Founders themselves?  Why is it that gun incidents are treated like the ultimate rule violations, or that fans are terrified of guns?

I know some people will disagree with me, but Gilbert Arenas in possession of a firearm doesn’t scare me.  If the league wants to penalize him for rules violations, that’s one thing.  But making a big deal out of the fact that the rules violation concerns a gun is silly.  Threatening to end his career, suspend him for an entire season…that’s also silly.  Ron Artest’s mouth causes more damage than Gilbert Arenas’s guns.  If the NBA is so intent on banning something, why not start with that?

Weasels and Politicians

I’m going to try to keep my blog current, even if it means posting shorter articles.  I admit, I haven’t kept to up to date on the whole Scott Brown vs. Martha Coakley Senate race in Massachusetts, to fill Ted Kennedy’s vacant seat.  I’ve read a few articles here and there, enough to know that Coakley’s campaign, which should be a lock to win in one of the most liberal states in the Union, is in serious trouble.  Scott Brown, who’s a moderately conservative Republican who opposes the current health care legislation proposal but believes that abortion is an issue that should be decided by a woman and her doctor, has taken advantage of the current populist, anti-health care and anti-big government attitudes sweeping the nation to push Coakley into a corner.

Coakley’s response was to bring in Hari Sevugan, who helped Barack Obama in his Senate campaign, and who currently is the DNC’s national press secretary.  As Byron York reports, Sevugan’s first act was to bring up former Alaska governor Sarah Palin, asking why Palin hadn’t yet weighed in on the Massachusetts Senate race.  He continued to push this line of questioning, stating that Palin’s supporters were “anxious for her to weigh in” and sending out emails to reporters on Palin’s silence over the Massachusetts Senate race.

As York reports:

Finally, when a Brown spokesman, while not specifically mentioning Palin, said that “Scott is not looking for a lot of outside help” and that the race would not be determined by outsiders, Sevugan sent out yet another email to reporters, this one headlined “Weaselly.” Sevugan directed journalists to his response to the “blatant dodge by the Scott Brown campaign on the issue of whether he is seeking and/or if he would accept an endorsement from Sarah Palin.” Sevugan quoted himself challenging Brown: “That’s a weaselly answer. And the people of Massachusetts deserve more than weaselly answers from their next senator…It’s a yes or no question, Scott Brown — Will you accept Sarah Palin’s endorsement or won’t you?”

Now, I certainly don’t count myself as a Brown apologist.  I have no doubt that once in the Senate, he will join the rest of the Republicans in growing the government, albeit at a slightly less pronounced pace than the Democrats, and vote for all sorts of unconstitutional legislation.  That aside, however, this exchange shows the ridiculous tactics that politicians and their proxies will engage in, in an effort to win a campaign. The national press secretary of the DNC is pressuring Scott Brown to accept an endorsement that hasn’t even been offered, all in an effort to tie Brown to a politician who’s likely to be unpopular in Massachusetts.  A weaselly answer, to state that you aren’t seeking endorsements from pundits who have absolutely nothing to do with your Senate race?

Brown should ask Martha Coakley to accept George Steinbrenner’s endorsement.  That would be poetic, don’t you think?