AJC > Sports > Tech > Blog > Archives > 2007 > October > 11
Thursday, October 11, 2007
Who decides what’s funny, what’s not?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
I’m told this was funny, but it didn’t feel that way to me.
Last Saturday at Maryland, about 15 minutes before the game, I’m in the press box listening to my iPod. Only about the fifth time I’ve used it since it was given to me as a gift last year. Same time, I’m scrolling the internet. I read about Manny Ramirez bashing that walk-off homer against the Angels, and decide to go look for the video.
I find it, click on it, and I’m watching while still listening to the iPod. In my own world, I guess you could say. Having read the story already, and Ramirez’s comment to the affect of, “I haven’t been right all year (because of injuries), and I’m still not right, but when a guy in my condition hits a ball like that, you know you’re a bad man.”
Then, I see the home run. He absolutely crushed it, and I mutter, “You are a bad man.”
Problem was, the national anthem was being performed, and was in fact nearly over. And I realized I was the only person in the press box not standing for it. In fact, everyone within about, oh, 10 yards of me had to listen to the ESPN audio while it was playing, completely unbeknownst to yours truly, El Dumkopf. To make it worse, in an otherwise silent press box, I muttered that stupid comment, whatever it was.
Then, I look over at a colleague. He’s laughing. I’m turning red, hammering on the volume button to try to turn it down while clumsily standing up.
What a train wreck!
But I digress, yet again.
Then again, as Tech’s football season has gone the wrong direction, interest in this blog seems to have digressed as well so maybe I’m in line after all.
I read on The Hive an opinion that if not for the late fumbled punt at Virginia, and the missed late field goal at Maryland, Tech would be 5-1. Uh, not so fast. There’s no way to be sure how those games would have played out if those plays were different. By that logic, if D.J. Donley didn’t block that punt against Clemson, who knows if Tech would’ve won that game.
That’s not how it works. That may be how the minds of fans sometimes work, and I know mine has worked (if that’s what you call it) that way before as a fan. But that’s not going to cut it in the real world.
Tech is 3-3, and yes, has been whipped just once. But they’ve lost three times, and there’s no going back.
What happens going forward? If Tech goes 5-1 from here on out, a decent season. Not up to expectations, but decent, especially if the Jackets were to win a decent bowl game.
But man, is all of that a long way off. The season’s half over, but it seems like it started forever ago. And here comes basketball. My frame of time reference is all out of whack right now. I guess that fits.
Matt
