It Finally Happened

I'd been doing the same thing for at least 10 years.  Each time I watched a Mets game ( and I watch almost every Mets game ), and the Mets pitcher got out of the first inning without surrendering a hit, I'd say the following to my wife ( or my brother, or my son Michael, or whoever else was in the room, and often, just to myself ) ...

"24 outs to go!"

Friday night, June 1st, 2012 was no different.  Johan Santana retired the Cardinals 1-2-3 in the top of the first.  The no-hitter watch was on again.

It might seem odd that I would regularly start a no-hitter watch after one inning of no-hit ball.  It might seem odd, that is, unless you know the history of the Mets and no-hitters.

When Johan Santana strode to the mound on Friday night, the Mets had still never had a no-hitter in their 50-year history.  Every other franchise in baseball, except the Padres ( who have not existed as long as the Mets ), have had at least one no-hitter in their history.  This includes the Rays ( started in 1998 ), the Diamondbacks ( 2 no-hitters since starting in 1998 ), the Rockies ( started in 1993 ) and the Marlins ( 4 no-hitters since starting in 1993 ).  With the exception of the Mets and Padres, no baseball franchise had gone as many as 5000 games into their franchise history without having at least one no-hitter.  Going into the Friday night's game, the Mets had gone 8019 games without a no-hitter.

What made this no-hitter drought particularly frustrating and perplexing is that the Mets have always had great pitching.  Former Cy Young Award winners like Pedro Martinez, Tom Glavine, Bret Saberhagen, and Frank Viola each spent a few years pitching for the Mets. Very good pitchers like Ron Darling, Jerry Koosman, Al Leiter, Jon Matlack, Mike Hampton, Sid Fernandez, Rick Reed, and Bobby Ojeda all helped the Mets win pennants and World Series, but failed to throw no-hitters while with the Mets ( Note: I was at Shea Stadium during a game in which Rick Reed retired the first 19 hitters in a row.  He then gave up a walk, hit, and a homer, and the Mets lost the game. ).  Most significantly, Mets pitchers Tom Seaver, Nolan Ryan ( Hall of Famers ), Dwight Gooden, David Cone, Mike Scott ( Cy Young Award winners ) and Hideo Nomo ( Rookie of the Year Winner ( before joining the Mets )) each pitched no-hitters ( in Ryan's case, a record 7 ) after being traded away from the Mets.

The most recent name added to the list of former Mets with no-hitters was Phil Humber.  Humber was the Mets first round draft pick back in 2004.  Mets fans had high hopes for Humber, but he never panned out.  He was traded away from the Mets before 2008 season started, then bounced around the league a fews years before landing with the Chicago White Sox.  This April, he pitched a Perfect Game.  When I read the story about his perfect game on ESPN, I noticed that somebody had written the following in the comments section under the story.

"How to pitch a no-hitter:

 Step 1: Pitch for the Mets

 Step 2: Pitch for any other team."

However, it's worth noting the trade that sent Phil Humber ( and a few other players ) away from the Mets in 2008, brought back ....

Johan Santana.

Back in 2008, Santana was a fine candidate to break the Mets no-hitter drought.  He had won the Cy Young award in 2004 and 2006, and was widely considered to be the best pitcher in baseball.  He didn't disappoint in 2008, leading the National League in ERA, setting a career high in innings pitched, and using his 95 mph fastball and devastating change-up to strike out 206 batters.

However, 2012 is a long way from 2008.  Johan had knee surgery after the 2008 season.  His 2009 season was ended by elbow surgery to remove bone chips, and his 2010 ended with surgery to repair a torn anterior capsule in his left shoulder.  He didn't pitch at all in the 2011 season, and many wondered if he'd ever pitch again.

To Johan's credit, after a year-and-a-half of hard work, he managed to get himself ready in time for the start of the 2012 season.  He even started on Opening Day.  However, it was clear that he was a shell of his former self.  His fastball was being clocked at about 88 mph ( it might hit 90 mph every once in a while, but certainly no faster than that ), and coming off the arm surgery, you knew that the Mets would rarely let him throw more than 100 pitches in a game in 2012.

Thus, while I would hope for a no-hitter at the start of every Mets game, I didn't really think that Johan was a realistic candidate anymore.  My hope rested more with young pitcher Jonathon Niese, and knuckleballer R. A. Dickey.  Neise had lost a no hitter in the 7th inning earlier this year, and Dickey had lost one in the 6th a few weeks earlier.  Back in 2010, Dickey had pitched a one-hitter in which the only hit was a single by the opposing pitcher in the 6th inning ( The Mets have had 35 one-hitters.  I don't know the odds of having that many one-hitters without a single no-hitter, but the odds must be ridiculous. ). 

So, I didn't think a Johan no-hitter was really possible, until he threw a complete game shutout on May 26, 2012.  In that game he only threw 96 pitches.  Surely, if he could pitch a shutout in only 96 pitchers, it was a least possible that he could throw a no-hitter in about 100 pitches or so.

Possible of course, but not likely.  Especially not on Friday night.  Back on May 26th, Johan was pitching against the last place Padres.  On Friday night, he was facing the defending World Champion Cardinals, the best-hitting team in the National League.

In additional to the Cardinals formidable lineup, there was a lot of bad Mets history in the middle of the field for the Cardinals that night.  The Cardinals had Adam Wainwright pitching, Yadier Molina catching, and Carlos Beltran playing centerfield.  Back in 2006, Carlos Beltran was the Mets best player.  They had the best record in the National League, and were playing the Cardinals in National Championship series.  The Mets were heavy favorites entering the series, but the series wound up going to a decisive game 7 at Shea Stadium.  The game was tied late, but I never really believed the Mets were going to lose until Yadier Molina ( who hit only 6 regular season homers in the regular season ) launched a two-run homer in the top of the 9th inning to give the Cardinals a 3-1 lead.  The Mets rallied in the bottom the 9th, and Carlos Beltran found himself batting against Adam Wainwright with the bases loaded and 2 outs in a 3-1 game.  As every Mets fan knows, Beltran wound up striking out looking, and things have never been quite the same for the Mets.  They blew a 7-game lead with 17 games to play to miss the playoffs in 2007, had a similar collapse in 2008, and then suffered through injury-plagued seasons in 2009, 2010, and 2011, during which Bernie Madoff related financial woes led the team to get rid of most of their best players ( including Beltran last year ).

Before this season, I told Ruth that the Mets would not just be awful this year, but would be "God-awful".  I really expected them to lose at least 100 games this year, but something special has been happening under manager Terry Collins this year - something that I've started to call "Collinsanity".

Collinsanity would continue on Friday night.

To be honest, due to Johan's shutout in his previous start, I started think about a potential no-hitter while Johan was pitching to his first batter of the game.  When it took him 7 pitches to get the lead-off batter out, I was already worrying that his pitch count was going to be too high to pitch a no-hitter.  I was even more worried after it took Johan 41 pitches to get through 2 no-hit innings.  20 pitches an inning just wasn't going to cut it if Johan was going to break the no-hitter curse that night.

Neither team had gotten a hit yet when the Mets came to bat in the bottom of the 4th.  The Mets got a hit to lead off the inning and managed to plate 2 runs before the inning was over.  I let out a sigh of relief at that point, because one of my recurring nightmares regarding Mets no-hitters ( I don't literally have nightmares about it, but I've thought about it a lot ) is that a Mets pitcher will have a no-hitter through 9 innings, but the Mets will fail to score.

Still, I really didn't like Johan's chances to throw a no-hitter that night.  Johan's didn't have particularly great stuff that night, his pitch count was rising rapidly, and it was starting to rain lightly at the ballpark.  If there was any kind of rain delay, there was no way the Mets were going to let Johan continue the game after a rain delay.  I didn't really hold out any hope that this game would be THE GAME until something happened at the top of the 6th.

Carlos Beltran led off the 6th inning and hit a hard line-drive down the third base line.  For a split second, I thought that the no-hit attempt was over, but the ump called it foul.  Then I got a look at a replay.  The replay showed that the ball had hit the outside part of the foul line.  The ball should have been called fair.  The Mets had caught a break.  After all these years of bad breaks, the Mets had finally caught a break.  Perhaps this night would be the night.

My doubts subsided more in the 7th inning.  With one out in the 7th, Johan's no-hitter was still alive when Yadier Molina stepped to the plate.  He had already broken the hearts of all Mets fans 6 years ago.  How cruel would it be if he broke our hearts again?  Johan falls behind Molina 3-1, and on the 5th pitch, Molina rips a deep line-drive to left.  I don't immediately think the no-hitter is over, but it's going to take a nice defensive play to get this out, and the Mets left fielder this night is Mike Baxter.

Mike Baxter is a 27-year-old who has spent most of his career in the minors.  He's got a pretty decent bat, but there is usually only one reason why 27-year olds with decent bats don't get much time in the Major Leagues.  Mike Baxter isn't exactly what you'd call a slick fielder.

The line drive flies towards the fence, and Baxter runs awkwardly back and to his left.  He desperately throws out his left hand at the last possible second, the ball hits the glove, and he hits the wall HARD.  Baxter goes down, and stays down, but holds on the ball.  2 outs!  7 outs to go.

Eventually Baxter gets up and is helped off the field by the trainers.  He appears to be in quite a bit of pain.  It's later revealed that the collision displaced his right collarbone and fractured rib cage cartilage. He won't be able to play again for about 6 weeks, but I'm sure he thinks it was worth it.  Baxter grew up in Queens as a Mets fan.  A Mets fan from Queens sacrifices his body making a play to preserve a no-hitter.  You couldn't make this stuff up.

Johan gets the last out of the 7th, the rain has long stopped, and now even the most pessimistic Mets fan knows that things are starting to get serious.  However, Johan's already thrown 107 pitches.  Can he possibly get through the next 2 innings without permanently damaging his arm?  Perhaps not, but it doesn't matter at this point.  Unless Johan gives up a hit, there is no way he's going to come out of this game.

Johan hasn't had great stuff tonight, and tendons and ligaments just might be fraying in his left elbow and shoulder by now, but heck, with only 6 outs to go, all you really need to do is just throw it over the plate and hope to get lucky.  Heck, if you give *me* enough tries ( granted, it might take a few thousand tries ), I even think I could get 6 outs in a row in a major league game.  Even if guys are hammering each pitch you throw, there always a chance that they'll hit lines drives right at people.  Johan's not pitching great at this point, but all he needs is a little bit of luck.  Can the Mets actually get a little bit of luck in a no-hitter attempt?

I turn to my wife and tell her that I won't be upset if Johan loses the no-hitter, unless he gets as far as 2 outs in the 9th.  I've been burned too many times by Mets no-hitter attempts.  I'm not going to let myself get emotionally invested in this until there's only one out to go.

Johan has a few close calls ( a few bloops, and a few near collisions between Mets fielders ), but the next thing you know, we've gotten to 2 outs in the 9th.  By now, Johan has thrown 128 pitches, 3 more than he's ever thrown in a game before.  The batter is 2011 World Series MVP David Freese.  Johan quickly falls behind 3-0.  I decide that I would rather walk Freese than give him a fastball in the strike zone on 3-0.  Johan throws a 3-0 fastball in the strike zone, Freeze takes it, and I breathe a sigh of relief.  It's about then that I realize that Yadier Molina is waiting on deck.  Considering what Molina's done to the Mets in the past, and considering how hard Molina hit the ball his last time up, I really don't want Molina coming up with a no-hitter on the line.  Still, I don't want Johan to give Freese an easy pitch to hit in this at-bat.  Crap, this is getting hard to watch.  I honestly don't remember what kind of pitch Johan threw next, but I do remember that Freese pounded it into the ground toward third base. For a split second I thought it was going to be ground out to end the game, but the ball quickly rolls foul.  3-2.  Now we're one strike away.  At this point, I'm thinking of just one thing.

A change-up.

"Change-up!"

"Throw him the change-up, Johan!"

Of course, he can't hear me ( heck these games on TV are on about a 7 second delay, so he's probably already thrown the pitch ), but he just HAS to throw his change-up here.  The Mets are up 8-0, so they're in no danger of losing the game if Johan walks a few people this inning.  You simply cannot give in to the batter in a situation like this with a no-hitter on the line.  Molina or no-Molina, he just can't give Freese a pitch to hit here.  Johan winds up and lets the pitch fly.  A split second before the ball reaches the plate, it's clear to me that he has thrown the change-up and that it's not going to be in the strike zone.  It will be ball four unless ...

FREESE SWINGS OVER THE BALL!

STRIKE THREE!!!!!!!

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 1, 2012 was a good night.

It's actually been a great weekend overall.  The Mets won the next two games 5-0 and 6-1, and now sit at 31-23 one third of the way into the season.  They are tied for first place and are on a pace to win 93 games this year.

Collinsanity continues ....

Rich

Hapapalooza

Keanu Reeves, Tiger Woods, Ann Curry, Olivia Munn, Maggie Q, Dean Cain, Russell Wong, Tommy Chong, Jennifer Tilly, Phoebe Cates, , Kelly Hu, Daniel Henney, Kristen Kruek, Apolo Anton Ohno, The Rock, me!

That's right.  I'm hapa baby!

For the those who are not familiar with the term, "hapa" is a Hawaiian term used to describe a person of mixed Asian or Pacific Islander ancestry.  The term has moved into the American mainstream in the last decade or so, and can be used to describe people like my half-Taiwanese sons, and apparently me.

How is this possible?  Well to be honest, I was as surprised to find this out as most of you probably are.  However, if you take a look at the photos of my maternal grandfather below, it's probably fair to say that I should have suspected this a while ago ( BTW, the little fellow in the stylish brown threads in the 3rd and 5th photos is me ).

My Grandfather was supposedly 100% German, but looking at the photos above, it's clear that his skin was a little bit darker than the typical German person.  Recently, one my cousins on my Mom's side of the family did a little research and found the birth certificate of my Grandfather's mother.  My maternal grandfather's mom was born in Jersey City, and her birth certificate listed her ethnicity as German/Filipino.  The birth certificate doesn't say what percentage Filipino she was , but I've got to imagine she was half Filipino.  My Aunt Barbara tells me that while all her German grandparents were born in the USA, her German great-grandparents were born in Germany.  I think it's highly unlikely that one of my German ancestors found a Filipino spouse in Germany, so I would think that my part-Filipino great-grandmother probably had a 100% German parent an a 100% Filipino parent who met in the USA.  The fact that she was born in Jersey City lends more credence to this theory.  There is a pretty big Filipino population in Jersey City these days ( BTW, Ruth and I lived in Jersey City from July 2002 until the end of September in 2003.  Our obstetrician was Filipino, and she delivered Michael in Jersey City in October of 2003. ), and apparently, the history of Filipino folks in Jersey City goes back to the time when my part-Filipino great-grandmother was born. 

  So, doing a little bit of math tells me that having a half-Filipino great-grandmother would make me one sixteenth Filipino.  So, taking this new information into account, I can now say that I'm ....

half Ukrainian

5/16th German

1/8th Irish

1/16th Filipino

  Considering that most Filipinos probably have at least a little bit of Spanish blood as well, I'm practically a one-man United freakin' Nations ( my kids even more so )!

Hmm, so I wonder when Keanu's going to invite me to the secret Hapa people dinner party?  Of course, they'd probably stick me at a table with painfully unfunny Filipino hapa Rob Schneider, so perhaps I should just lay low for a while.

Rich

Edit: Clearly, I couldn't list every famous hapa in the world in the list at the start of this post.  However, as a huge Mets fan, it's inexcusable that I left out Ron Darling.

Why I Love Phineas and Ferb

There are lot of reason why I love this show, but I just wanted to briefly highlight one reason why I've added this show to my personal pantheon of great cartoon shows.  That pantheon of shows now only consists of "The Simpsons", "Family Guy", "South Park", and "Phineas and Ferb" ( BTW, I still believe that collectively, the timeless comic brilliance of the Warner Brother Bugs/Daffy/Elmer/Road-Runner/Porky/Sylvester/Tweety shorts tops any of those shows, but I kinda consider those shorts to be a different category than cartoon TV series. ).  All four of these shows are brilliant in ways that are similar ( They all are great in terms of musical numbers and pop culture references ), and each have a quality which distinguishes them from the others.  I think "The Simpsons" is the smartest show of the 4, "South Park" is the most topical ( Trey and Matt sometimes release a South Park episode that parodies things that had happened earlier in the week.  I'm still amazed that they can put together a topical cartoon that quickly ( I guess the simple animation helps ) ), and Family Guy is the best at hitting that hilarious sweet spot right on the edge of bad taste ( Some might think this best describes "South Park", but I think "South Park" sometimes goes to edge of bad taste for the sake of going to the edge, while "Family Guy" almost always goes to the edge to be funny.  If you want good example of "Family Guy" hitting that hilarious sweet spot on the edge of bad taste, get yourself a DVD with the uncensored version of the "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" episode. ).  I think what distinguishes "Phineas and Ferb" is heart.  Perhaps that shouldn't surprise me, considering that "Phineas and Ferb" is in the Disney stable, but this show is great at including little moments that can really touch your heart.  I was reminded of that when I was watching the end credits of a "Phineas and Ferb" episode today.  This particular episode ( It's one of the early ones, but I only got on the P&F train about a year or so ago ( thanks to an article in Wired magazine )) takes place in a Museum.  While the Flynn-Fletcher family was in the Museum, Lawrence ( Ferb's dad and Phineas'  step-dad ) had purchased an audio tour of the museum ( on an audio tape ).  In the end-credits, we find him in bed playing his favorite part of the audio tour over and over and again.  He repeats his favorite part out loud, and makes a "boop" sound each time rewinds the tape.  Just look at how his wife reacts when this wakes her up.



Rich

Edit: FYI, I just noticed that the director of the "When You Wish Upon a Weinstein" Family Guy episode is one of the co-creator's of "Phineas and Ferb".

Edit 2: Oh, and both "Phineas and Ferb" co-creators met while working on "The Simpons" together.
 

Material Guy

I haven't done a completely random blog post in a while, so here goes ...

Tonight, Peter asked me to play him the "real song" version of a song he was playing an instrumental version of on the Wii Music game.  The song turned out to be "Material Girl".  I found him the video online ( see below ) and watched along with him.  It's probably been about 25 years since I last watched this video, and I just noticed something about it that I had never noticed before.


Watch Madonna - Material Girl in Music  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

To put it bluntly - the dude in the beard is really creepy.

Now, he's not creepy because of the beard ( though I must admit, it does look a little bit creepy on him ).  He's creepy because of his actions.

Perhaps it's because I'm getting old and my memory of the 80's is getting a little bit hazy, but the "Material Girl" video isn't exactly  what I remembered.  Sure, the "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" homage/ripoff was just as I remembered, but I always remembered this video as being a bit of counterpoint to the lyrics of the song.  In other words, while the speaker in the "Material Girl" song is an unapologetic materialistic gold-digger, Madonna's character in the video is a girl unimpressed by money who ends the video making out with a poor bearded schlep in a crappy pick-up truck.

There's just one problem with that description, however ...

The bearded dude wasn't poor!

In fact he was the opposite of poor.  He was apparently a rich and powerful Hollywood executive, as is evident by the way Arliss is kissing up to him in the opening scene ( BTW.  I don't care what Robert Wuhl is in.  Every role he plays is Arliss, even if it's something that was filmed a decade before Arliss premiered ( just like Danny McBride will now be Kenny Powers for the rest of his life ) ).

There nothing wrong with being rich, but there something creepy about a guy who misrepresents himself in order to get into a woman's pants.  Sure, he was pretending to be poor when he was really rich, which some might consider to be noble.  However, he was only pretending to be poor because heard Madonna character say she didn't like rich guys while he was eavesdropping on her ( The eavesdropping was only a small part of the bearded dude's constant stalking during the video.  It's also clear from the scene with Arliss, that this guy views Madonna's character as a possession rather than a woman.  Specifically, we see the following in the opening scene:


00:22 seconds: Creepy Bearded Dude ( CBD ) : I wanna meet her.


00:24 : Arliss: You got it. Anytime.  Name the place - name anwhere - any street - you got it!


00:27: CBD: Now!


00:27 - 00:31 ( Creepy pause )


00:31 - 00:32 ( Really creepy look from CBD.  He looks at Madonna's character ( on the movie screen ) the way a starving lion might look at an injured antelope. )


)

If you still doubt that CBD is a creep, watch the scene starting at 4:16, specifically what happens at 4:21.  CBD gives a poor farmer a wad of cash to buy/borrow his crappy pickup truck, and then dismissively waves him away.  He practically shoos the farmer away, the way somebody might shoo away a fly.  He's basically saying, "Get out my sight you poor piece of crap, so I can use your truck to get me some Madonna pussy!".  So, this guy is not only creepy, he's a world-class douchebag!

So now I don't know what the hell the message of this video is, other than perhaps "Madonna likes to get it on with douchebags" ( paging Mr. Canseco ).

In any case, it's time for bed.  Hope this post was random enough for you.

Rich

How do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?

( My sincerest apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein )
( Sing to the tune of "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria". )

How do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?
He's got positions so hard to pin down.


How do you find a way to beat Mitt Romney?
He's got chameleon skills
that never fail to ...
astound.


Many a politician tried to beat him.
Many tried to get him to take a stand.


But what can you make him say
to give himself away?


How do you get him to tip his hand?


Oh, how do you solve a problem like Mitt Romney?
He's made an asset out of being bland.

Hear that sound?

It's the sound of Mitt Romney moving to the left.

The closer he gets to the nomination, the more of a Moderate he'll become.

Those of you who remember John Kerry's 2004 campaign might not agree with the premise of the little ditty above.  You might think that Mitt Romney's flip-flopping tendencies would be a liability in the 2012 presidential campaign.  However, while his flip-flopping was certainly a liability in the race for the GOP nomination ( which he's pretty much has wrapped up ), I think it's actually going to help him in the general election.

I know that a lot of my fellow Liberals watch Romney struggle in the GOP primaries and think "Obama's gonna beat this guy easily".  However, the polls tell another story, as does common sense.

I think we're all aware that the election is going to be decided by a bunch of conviction-less dolts that the media charitably calls "Moderates".  These folks have been hearing Romney say a lot of scary Right-wing stuff lately, as Romney futilely tries tries to attract conservative GOP voters.  Considering that these Moderate voters would generally be scared off by such Right-wing positions, do you think it hurts or helps Romney that these Moderate voters can't sure if Romney really means what he's saying?

Furthermore, everyone knows by now that the Right-wing of the Republican party HATES Romney.  They hate him with a passion and they are not afraid to say so.  When lots of Moderate voters see the Right-wing attack Romney I'm sure they say to themselves "Gee, if the Tea Party and the Christian Right hate Romney so much, I guess he can't be that bad.".

And that in a nutshell, is Obama's problem with Mitt Romney.  Far-Right Conservatives in the GOP, despite their best efforts to shoot themselves in the foot and nominate an unelectable Conservative, are actually helping Romney by making him look like a Moderate.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I still think Obama is slightly more likely to win than not, but Democrats had better not get complacent, and Obama had better not try to run as a Moderate.  Obama's got to do everything he can to make clear distinctions between his positions and whatever positions Romney is adopting that week.

Let's face it - while American has made a lot of progress in race relations over the years, we still live in a nation were stuff like this happens.  We shouldn't forget that McCain was leading Obama in the polls in 2008 before the economy collapsed and McCain made the bone-headed remark "the fundamentals of our economy are strong".  America may not know exactly what to make of Mitt Romney, but if nothing else, they know that he's extremely white.  Obama had better make sure that enough people in the country understand that there is more that separates him from Mitt Romney than skin color.

I'll tell you this much - if Obama campaigns the same way he's governed, he'll lose for sure.  I'm going to be really worried if I don't hear the sound of Obama moving to the left real soon.

Rich

Ben & Jerry & Jeremy

C'mon.  You really didn't think I could go the whole month without writing a post about Jeremy Lin, did you?

I'm not sure how this post will end up, but I do know where it's going to start.  It's going to start with this link.

Last week, a Ben and Jerry's ice cream shop in Harvard Square introduced a frozen yogurt flavor named "Taste the Lin-Sanity".  That in itself, wasn't very controversial.  After all, everyone's trying to hop on the Jeremy Lin bandwagon these days ( We already got Knicks Lin #17 T-shirts for the boys and Ruth's Dad.  Ruth didn't didn't get one for herself, which surprised me a bit.  I told her that if a guy with MY last name was playing for ANY professional sports team ( well except for the Yankees, Dolphins, or Patriots ), I'd be wearing that guy's jersey 24-hours a day. ), and Lin did go to Harvard, so you could see why the Harvard Square location of Ben & Jerry's would try to cash in.  However, what was controversial was that the "Lin-Sanity" flavor had fortune cookies in it.  This caused enough controversy that Ben & Jerry's issued an apology.

Now, while the idea of a Jeremy Lin fortune-cookie flavored frozen yogurt bothers me, I'm bothered even more by the the response of most people to the Ben & Jerry's apology.  If you look at the comments attached to the linked ESPN article above ( and the comments by the commentators in the video attached to the article ), you'll see exactly what I mean, but a good representative comment was ...

BirdiePool

An apology was not necessary. This country is getting ridiculous.

2398 fans like this.

I also think this country is ridiculous, but I think it's ridiculous because 99% of the people in this county have no idea what's wrong with introducing a fortune-cookie flavored frozen yogurt to "celebrate" a Taiwanese-American basketball player.  I think it's ridiculous that people still think it's okay to make juvenile Asian-themed jokes about Jeremy Lin,  like "Who said Asian's can't drive?" ( This includes one of my favorite comics, Bill Maher.  I was very disappointed that Maher did a bunch of cringe-worthy Asian jokes on his show, including such beauties as "Peking Dunk" and "Moo Goo Guy Slam" - see here and here for the clips ).  I think it's ridiculous that Lin's teammates greeted him with Japanese-style bows after he hit one of his first big  shots.

Why do I think it's so ridiculous?  Well I covered this extensively before in the video below back in September of 2007, but allow me to go on another little rant about this ...



Let's say the Jeremy Lin story had happened exactly the same way, except that he had been a California-born Harvard-educated guy named Jeremy McGraw or Jeremy Schmidt instead of an California-born Harvard-educated guy named Jeremy Lin.  If that was the case, those Ben & Jerry's employees would never have even thought about introducing a shamrock green frozen yogurt to celebrate Jeremy McGraw.  They would never have even thought about introducing a German Black Forest Cake frozen yogurt to honor Jeremy Schmidt.  I say they "would never have even thought about it" not because I think those Ben & Jerry's employees would have thought that a Irish-themed or German-theme dessert would have been offensive.  I say they "would never have even thought about it" because they literally would never have thought of it.  The idea of making an Irish-themed dessert to honor the American-born Jeremy McGraw would never have crossed their minds.  It would have never crossed their minds, because all those Ben & Jerry's employees would have thought of Jeremy McGraw as American rather than Irish.  They would have thought of Jeremy Schmidt as American rather than German.  However, the vast majority Americans still think of Jeremy Lin as Asian rather than American.

This bothers me a lot.  It's bothered me for a long time.  I'm a pretty patriotic person, and I believe that America's greatness is based on its diversity.  I truly believe that the heterogeneous nature of the US population  makes the USA the greatest nation in the world.  Sure, nations like England, Germany, and Japan have had their day, and countries like China and India seem to be on the rise, but nations like those will always be limited their lack of diversity.  Those countries are limited by the fact that only the majority race and majority culture has a real chance to get to the top.  In the USA, anyone can get to the top.  They best, brightest, and most ambition people in the world aren't flocking to England, Germany, Japan, China, or India.  They're coming HERE, to the good old USA!  America is at its best when we follow the spirit of those words at the base of the Statue of Liberty.  It's at its best when its people realize that being an American isn't about where your ancestors were from - it's about were you're going.  It isn't about what you look like, it's about what you can do - what we all have the opportunity to do.  That opportunity should exist for anyone who calls this place home.  All the people who live here and collectively make this country great are Americans, and it sickens me that most people in this country think of Jeremy Lin as Asian rather than American.  It sickens me that most Americans would think of my wife as being Asian rather than American.  I really would have liked to think that our nation would have come farther by 2012, which is why I find stuff like Jeremy Lin fortune-cookie flavored frozen yogurt so disheartening.

That being said, I believe things will get better over time, and I think Jeremy Lin has a unique opportunity to make things better.  Let's face it, the guy is pretty much a walking stereotype-breaker.  Every time he drives the lane and dunks the ball he helps break the stereotype of the meek unathletic Asian.  Plus it appears that Jeremy "gets it" too.  Check out this quote from Mr. Lin:

“a lot of people say I’m deceptively athletic and deceptively quick, and I’m not sure what’s ‘deceptive.’ But it could be the fact that I’m Asian-American.”

I really hope Jeremy's success continues and he has the courage ( rather than trying the "play nice" and be non-controversial in order to maximize his endorsement bucks ( See Jordan, Michael ) ) to keep speaking out.  Very few Asian-Americans have had the forum that he has now, and I hope he can help the rest of America to understand what it really means to be an American.

Rich

American Exceptionalism

  I certainly don't intend to vote for anyone other than President Obama this fall ( I can't see myself ever voting for any Republican in any election unless the Republican party radically changes what they stand for at some point in my life. ), but I enjoy politics in general as a spectator sports, and the Republican contest for the 2012 Presidential nomination has been as entertaining as any political contest in recent memory.  The Republican electorate's futile search for a viable non-Romney candidate has been fascinating.  It's been entertaining as all hell to watch all the Republican in-fighting and the rise and fall of candidates like Michele Bachmann ( Her anit-gay yet flaming-gay husband has been worth the price of admission.  I will never again wonder why Michele Bachman is so f*cked up. ), Rick Perry ( Ooops! ), Herman Cain ( Insert pizza-related sexual harassment joke here ), Rick Santorum ( God, I don't even know where to start with this guy.  Just go ahead and Google "Rick Santorum closet" and have some fun. ), Donald Trump ( ????? ), and Newt Gingrich ( who was at the bottom of the polls and had his whole campaign staff resign, then rose to the top of the polls, then dropped back near the bottom before the first contest in Iowa, then rose back to the top of the polls in time for the South Carolina primary, and now has dropped back into to second place again just a week later ).

Newt Gingrich has been by far the most fascinating of the GOP candidates.  Considering his personal history ( He cheated on his first wife and discussed divorce with her when she was in the hospital for cancer.  He was cheating on his second wife while he tried to get President Clinton impeached for infidelity, and divorced his second wife months after she was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. ) and his political history ( He was charged with ethics violations when he was Speaker of the House or Representatives.  He was reprimanded and fined $300,000 by the House by a 395-28 vote. ), it's no surprise that polls show that less than 30 % of the country views him favorably.  As somebody who wants President Obama to win in November, I was pretty happy when it became apparent that Newt actually had a realistic chance to be the GOP nominee.  However, after watching the speech below, I've decided that it would dangerous to underestimate Newt.





That speech was brilliant.  I don't agree with a single word Newt said in it, but it was brilliant.  In 20 minutes, he said just about everything a GOP candidates needs to say to attract GOP voters ( plus he managed to make a sly play for Ron Paul's voters ).  Newt hit all the rights notes, including the notes for all the "hidden messages" that all Republican candidates need to send if they want to attract racist Republican voters while not offending non-racist Republican voters.  Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to imply that all Republicans are racist.  What I'm trying to say can best be summed up by this quote from Bill Maher:


"I'm not saying all Republicans are racist, but if you're racist, you're probably a Republican"

This may not be something that Republicans want to hear, but it's reality, and every Republican political operative knows it.  In the game of politics, any campaign manager who is actually earning his or her paycheck will try to win votes by any means necessary.  Winning "by any means necessary" means not leaving any votes behind.  It means trying to win every vote that's out there to win, including the votes of racists.

Oh, and by the way, if you think that pandering to racist voters is something that only Republican candidates do, I have two words for you ... Sister Souljah.

However, while both Democrats and Republicans have played the racist-card in the past, Republicans certainly have more to gain from it, especially considering who happens to be President right now.

So as I mentioned in this post, Republicans often need to talk in code, and Gingrich is a master at it.  A particularly good example of this can been seen in the YouTube clip above starting at the 11:25 mark.  Newt says ".. but the centerpiece of this campaign is American Exceptionalism verses the radicalism of Saul Alinsky." and "he ( President Obama ) draws his ( understanding of America ) from Saul Alinsky.".  He also makes sure to link President Obama to Saul Alinsky again near the end of the speech.  I highly doubt that many voters have any idea who Saul Alinksy is ( I'll admit that I didn't until I looked it up ),  but I'm sure most voters recognize that the name "Saul Alinsky" sounds extremely Jewish.  So, I wouldn't be surprised if Newt keeps putting "Obama" and "Saul Alinsky" in the same sentences of his campaign speeches, because if there is one thing racists voters hate more than a black guy, it's a black guy who hangs out with Jews ( BTW, Barack Obama was 10 when Saul Alinsky died, so he clearly never met the man, but I don't think racist voters are going to do the research to figure that out. ).

In any case, it's not really Newt or his hidden messages that riled me up and inspired me to write this post.  What really got me going was Newt's invocation of American Exceptionalism.  Newt's certainly not alone in the GOP field in invoking this concept.  Mitt Romney wrote a book called "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness", so no matter who Obama faces in the general election, he's going to to be attacked on this issue.

The concept of American Exceptionalism can be traced all the way back to 1831, and it has certainly evolved over the years, but when Republicans invoke it these days they are usually trying to say that the USA is a near-perfect nation which never does anything wrong.  They are trying to imply that anyone who doesn't believe that is unpatriotic.   I find that concept to be abhorrent on many levels ( and actually quite an un-patriotic ), and I hope that Obama has the balls to trash this concept when Romney or Gingrich inevitably attacks him with it.  However, I'm not really counting on Obama to show any balls, especially because he's been quoted as saying the following about American Exceptionalism:

 "I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism."

I can kinda see what Obama was trying to say here.  He was talking in the kind of code that Democrats sometime need to talk in.  He was trying to assure people like me that he thinks the GOP concept of American Exceptionalism is silly, but he's doing it in a way that he hopes will keep people from thinking that he's unpatriotic.  However, I think the comment above isn't a strong enough defense against the inevitable "American Exceptionalism" attacks.  The comment above makes him seem wishy-washy to folks like me, and not-sufficiently patriotic to the believers in American Exceptionalism.  I think President Obama need to tackle this issue head on.  If I were on the President's campaign team, I would advice him to say something like the following if somebody like Gingrich brings up American Exceptionalism in a Presidential debate:  

"Republicans like yourself like to perpetuate the fallacy that those who do not believe in American Exceptionalism are not patriotic.  You imply that those who do not believe in American Exceptionalism do not believe the USA is the greatest country in the world.  Well, Speaker Gingrich ( or Governor Romney - BTW, I'll willing to accept that former Presidents should be called "President" in perpetuity, but it's little silly to use to term "Speaker" to refer to a guy who was booted out of his Speaker job by his own party. ), I do believe we live in the greatest country in the world.  However, just because the USA is the best country in the world, that doesn't mean we shouldn't work hard to make it better.  Resting on our laurels isn't what made America great.  Patting ourselves on the back isn't the American Way.  Working hard is the American Way.  I believe that all Americans should be working hard to make this country better.  Words alone won't make us better.  Belief alone won't make us better.  Only action will make us better.  We need to take the actions that will give every American the opportunity to succeed. ( After that, he should point out Democratic policies that will improve America and help ordinary Americans succeed. )." 


Anyway, time to send this post out in time for the Florida Primary.  I'm really looking forward to following it tomorrow night.


Rich