I flew into Philadelphia yesterday in time to watch the Eagles-Bears game with my family, one of those typically frustrating Eagles performances where they can’t seem to get any rhythm going, yet show flashes of brilliance, only to eke out an unsatisfying win or a disappointing loss in the fourth quarter.
Last night it was one of those unsatisfying wins, and in reading the headlines in the Philadelphia Inquirer’s sports section this morning I was reminded of Phillies hall of fame third baseman Mike Schmidt’s classic quip on the city’s demanding fans: “Philadelphia is the only city, where you can experience the thrill of victory and the agony of reading about it the next day.”
True to form, the Inquirer headlines were far from celebratory. “Birds claw back in fourth quarter, avoid a grisly loss.” “Stumble and fumbles mar win.” “In night air, whiff of desperation.” “Eagles lucky that Bears were worse.” Apart from the score, about the most positive thing the Philadelphia headline writers could manage was an eye-roll of a grudging acknowledgment: “At last, a comeback.”
Now compare that to the headline in the Seattle Times after the Seahawks’ thorough ass-whooping at the 40-year-old hands of Brett Favre: “Favre has masterful performance against Hawks.”
Yeah, sure, the Hawks lost 35-9, but Favre had a masterful performance, so what could they do?
My point is, if at times I come off as a little critical of our media… well… I come by it honestly. This is the way we were trained to celebrate a win, so just imagine the way Philadelphia responds to a loss. Don’t get me wrong… we love our Eagles. But it’s a tough love. A very tough love.
And as an inveterate newspaper reader, that’s exactly the same way I love the media.
Very funny comparison – the Seahawks stink it up and we read how great Farve was. The Eagles win and they read how lucky they were to win despite playing poorly.
Hmm, which media has the more unbiased sports page?
By the way – I love that Mike Schmidt quote – it is really funny and I appreciate that from an intelligent jock.
…eke out, not ‘eek out’….
Slow down, Goldy, and set your work aside for a while. Then reread it with a fresh eye! I’m sure that you will be making fewer and fewer of these embarrassing errors.
-1 (sorry, no offense…)
@2 — Comes from reading too much Chaucer. “Eke” comes from Middle English “eek”, or “also”
“if at times I come off as a little critical of our media… well… I come by it honestly.”
I don’t believe you. I don’t believe you rant daily about the Seattle Times for the reasons you stated. I believe there’s another reason you’re angry with them.
Goldy, have you ever applied for a job at the Seattle Times?
Goldy, you often say you are proud to be a liberal Democrat. But do you walk the talk?
Question. Did you buy carbon offsets for your flight?
Philadelphia fans–when asked why he booed Mike Schmidt, the guy said, “Well, sometimes he sucked.” We Seattle fans need to ask ourselves: how much would Ichiro have to suck before we booed him. I figure he’d have to suck every game between now and doomsday, and maybe even then, no boos for Ichiro.
re 3: Like: “Eke! There’s a mouse!”
I’m not buying the Middle English excuse. The only person I’ve ever known who was fluent in Middle English was Mr. Englebrecht.
@5 More apropos at this point….Goldy, did you take Sound Transit to the airport?
Even more apropos would be: Goldy, did you read a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt during the flight?
If there were a FakeDavidGoldstein, he could tweet, “The Seattle Times is no Philadelphia Inquirer.”
Don’t be fooled! Goldy’s buying expensive plane trips to Philly to distract you from the fact that I don’t like Christine Gregoire’s tax policy.
This is what I love about the crazies on this blog. The original posting is making a specific point,and every post that follows totally ignores it and goes on some nutty side rant. Priceless!
I think there’s a lot of ADD going on around here. A post is made comparing journalist styles, and the rants go on about everything BUT that. LOL
Keep up the crazy!
Goldy mistakenly wrote ‘eek’ instead of ‘eke’. That was the point. It was to test if people were alert and had on their George Will thinking caps.
@4, 5 – For the record, I don’t believe anything you say. You have no brain. You’re only a scratchy recording.
Oh my, more stupid from the Seattle Times:
Say as opposed to a certain “nonpartisan” former newscaster. Big of you to finally notice that Frank.
Alki@12: Glad you noticed those leftists with ADD. Been saying something was wrong with them for years.
Goldy, On the tube last night there was a graphic about McNabb, his passer rating depending on his throwing patterns. It was very enlightening. At least Jeremiah Trotter played well.
Looks like McNabb screwed the pooch.
@11 I don’t like Gregoire’s tax policy either. Poor people pay 5 1/2 times as much of their income to state/local taxes as affluent households, and Christine hasn’t done a damn thing to remedy it.
@13 No journalist will ever top George Will’s comparison of of Nixon’s “little lies” with Hitler’s “theory of the big lie.” He said Hitler’s idea was if you told a gigantic whopper people would believe it because they’d think no one would dare to tell such a lie, whereas Nixon’s lies were “so petty and demeaning you wonder why he stooped to it.” Of course, the same thing could be said about a succession of Republican liars since Nixon. In fact, Dwight Eisenhower and Dan Evans were the last honest Republicans, and there hasn’t been an honest Republican since them.
It could be urban legend, but the quote is attributed to Norm Carlton, who had two sessions with the Mariners with a Phillies session squeezed in between (given that Norm had two degrees from Rice, I think it might be true): “The thing about Phillies fans is a hitter can hit home runs the first 3 times up at the plate, then he strikes out the 4th. Phillies fans will boo him.” M’s fans? Not likely.
‘I flew into Philadelphia yesterday’
Must be nice to have Momma pay for your trip. Aren’t you a little too old for that now Goldy?