Somewhere, David Simon smiles, knowing that the message of The Wire has at least reached one person in a position of influence – that is, if you describe John Angelos, the son of Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos and the team’s COO, as a person of influence.
Responding to the Baltimore riots in the wake of the death in police custody of Freddie Gray, and before Monday’s game against Chicago was postponed due to safety concerns, Angelos wrote in a series of tweets with local broadcaster Brett Hollander (collected courtesy Ted Berg of USA Today):
“Brett, speaking only for myself, I agree with your point that the principle of peaceful, non-violent protest and the observance of the rule of law is of utmost importance in any society. MLK, Gandhi, Mandela and all great opposition leaders throughout history have always preached this precept. Further, it is critical that in any democracy, investigation must be completed and due process must be honored before any government or police members are judged responsible.
“That said, my greater source of personal concern, outrage and sympathy beyond this particular case is focused neither upon one night’s property damage nor upon the acts, but is focused rather upon the past four-decade period during which an American political elite have shipped middle class and working class jobs away from Baltimore and cities and towns around the U.S. to third-world dictatorships like China and others, plunged tens of millions of good, hard-working Americans into economic devastation, and then followed that action around the nation by diminishing every American’s civil rights protections in order to control an unfairly impoverished population living under an ever-declining standard of living and suffering at the butt end of an ever-more militarized and aggressive surveillance state.
“The innocent working families of all backgrounds whose lives and dreams have been cut short by excessive violence, surveillance, and other abuses of the Bill of Rights by government pay the true price, and ultimate price, and one that far exceeds the importance of any kids’ game played tonight, or ever, at Camden Yards. We need to keep in mind people are suffering and dying around the U.S., and while we are thankful no one was injured at Camden Yards, there is a far bigger picture for poor Americans in Baltimore and everywhere who don’t have jobs and are losing economic civil and legal rights, and this makes inconvenience at a ballgame irrelevant in light of the needless suffering government is inflicting upon ordinary Americans.”
Well, yes. And the horror continues.
[RELATED: Orioles postpone game due to civil unrest in Baltimore]
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Mexico is getting the Mayweather-Pacquiao shame-alcade for free on Televisa and Azteca, and the Philippines is getting it for free as well on its major national networks (GMA-7, ABS-CBN, TV5 and SolarSports). Maybe you can end-run the pay-per-view by learning Spanish or Tagalog (or bringing a bilingual pal over).
But I doubt it.
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Now, let’s cover the great Intentional Foul Debate.
Why did this become a massive problem? Is the two-minute interval of bad free throw shooting ruining your experience of watching the other two hours and 38 minutes? Are you refusing to watch? Are you throwing tea towels at the screen and screaming and scaring your children and pets?
Let me answer that for you. No. You’re not. This is not any kind of a problem at all, so stop it, you whiny mopes.
Sincerely, all thinking people across the globe.
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I admire Jon Jones’ ability to prioritize his world even in stressful situations like his alleged hit-and-run of a pregnant woman driver in Albuquerque. He fled the scene on foot, then remembered that he’d left cash, marijuana and MMA paperwork in the car and ran back.
For the money. Then he fled again.
I mean, let’s face it, marijuana isn’t something you want to get caught actually holding, and you can always get more paperwork, but you can never be sure that you’ll get a receipt for abandoned cash.
(Sarcasm font).
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And finally, Josh Hamilton doesn’t really inspire the prodigal son story line now that he is a Texas Ranger again, but I do like the fact that the Angels will be paying him about $60+ million to play against them in the 13 remaining games between the teams this year and the 19 next year.
When you get to see Arte Moreno eating his own liver in rage, you don’t need story lines. You just need beer and a place to watch the game.
