Baseball Toaster was unplugged on February 4, 2009.
scott@scottlongonline.com
Hey, have you heard? Jerry Seinfeld has a new movie out. I actually heard an interesting interview on his promotional tour on Friday. Comedian Jim Breuer has a really fun show every weekday afternoon on Sirius Satellite Radio and he did a great interview with Seinfeld. There can't be 2 comics who are much more different in their styles, be it on or off-stage. Seinfeld is meticulous and sharply sarcastic. Breuer is bombastic, bigger than life, bringing a rock and roll feel to his comedy, following the example of his metal band heroes. The one common bond the 2 share is that they are both huge Mets fans, something that Breuer talks about on a regular basis.
During their sitdown, Seinfeld brought up how he wouldn't want ARod to join the Mets. I'm paraphrasing here, but it is Seinfeld's basic contention that he doesn't like all the deep breathing he does before each at-bat. He said that ARod seems to almost be tantric while preparing for each pitch. Seinfeld then discussed how he felt that Willie Randolph needs to go back to his Yankee look and lose the Harry Reems mustache he has sported more recently. Jerry is conservative when it comes to baseball and believes the Mets manager should lose the porn stache, as it sets a bad tone. Just like most comedy, this retelling loses a lot in the blog translation, but the whole segment was hilarious and made me wish that Seinfeld would do an hour a month on some talk radio show, breaking down sports in his observational comedic way.
Discussing the future of the Mets, Breuer did your typical rabid fan take, believing that the Mets should trade their whole bullpen to the Twins for Santana. He obviously doesn't realize that the bullpen is the area the Twins need the least help in, but I enjoyed his passion about the game. There are questions about how much MLB pitchman Dane Cook knows baseball, but there is no doubt how strongly these 2 comics feel about the game. My experience has been that very few comics I have run into have any interest in baseball, so it was really cool hearing a couple top-rate comics like Breuer and Seinfeld discuss the game from a different perspective than you get from a pure baseball analyst.
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I read this Q/A in Sporting News with Rush's Geddy Lee, a couple of months ago, and have been looking for a place to put it in. The piece outlines how Lee is a huge Fantasy baseball fan. Geddy sang my favorite version of O Canada at an All-Star game, so I knew he was familiar with baseball. Below are a few of my favorite excerpts. The intererview was conducted by Matt Crossman.
Sporting News: I hear your fantasy league is hard-core.
Geddy Lee: It's a fantastic indulgence in baseball insanity. We have 40-man rosters. We have very, very tough eligibility rules....
SN: Do you really check your fantasy lineup during intermissions (at concerts)?
Lee: With the internet, I can check and see if I've got a pitcher going.
SN: Limelight is your best song. It quotes William Shakespeare. Are you ever going to do a song that features Peter Gammons?
Lee: It's possible, especially now that I know him. He's very quotable--one of the greatest storytellers I've ever met in my life. He is fantastic character. He knows almost as much about music as he does about baseball.
http://www.slate.com/id/2177380
I feel so ashamed.
Where I really disagree is the part about Rick Shapiro being some new type of Lenny Bruce. This is just another example of some New York intellectual type who exclaims some new artist is the next Pollack, when the truth is that Chuck Taylor created more art on canvas.
The best standup has some structure, while still having some Improv elements as well. It doesn't have to appeal to everyone, but I'm less than impressed, if it only makes hipsters in the Village and talent agents in LA nod appreciatively. More on this subject, later.
Having already been listed as one of the "40 worst lyricist of all time" a couple quotes from Mr. Gammons certainly couldn't hurt anything.
Hah!
The same phenomenon occurs in L.A. too, although on a different scale.
But his attack on the cookbook writer who published a kids' cookbook similar to the one Jerry's wife wrote was repellent. The two books are about how to hide healthy food in recipes kids will eat. The other writer's book came out first. Jerry's wife's cookbook has 15 identical recipes in it. On Letterman, Seinfeld basically called the other writer mentally ill for even suspecting plagiarism, comparing her to the stalker who schemed to kidnap Letterman's son.
Basically, Seinfeld used his power as a celebrity to intimidate this other writer so she won't sue, demonstrating that he has the power to destroy her reputation and will use it to protect his wife's earnings.
If anyone needs proof that we have an aristocracy of wealth in this society, there it is. Even Letterman seemed a little uncomfortable giving Seinfeld airtime for this evil rant.
Seinfeld anymore? No thanks. He's somebody else now.
In a fit of supreme weird randomness, Ellen DeGeneres decided to take that day and pop in on the new mothers and dump tons of gifts on them. (The hospital is a block away from where they tape the show.) My wife was in her private room surrounded by friends when Ellen came in dancing and pushing in little Tex. I had a gift stashed in the cart for my four-year-old boy that the nurses knew about so Ellen walks in 'Oh you're the big brother? Here ya go! This is from your new brother.' She then did some stand up, cameras rolling. My wife in shock the whole time. Then Ellen dumped an amazing amount of gifts on my wife, which I won't go into. But it may have been the most surreal day of my life in the past decade.
Oh wait... one of the gifts was a Maytag washer and dryer - how freakin' odd is that. My pop told me the plant in Newton officially closed like a week ago. UN believable.
It is really sad about the world of Newton. The town has no real place to go but down, considering how Maytag impacted everything in the local economy.
I only found out moments ago that Iggy was the aforementioned puppy's name. I can't imagine if I had told Ellen THAT story - me unaware of the freaking puppy-gate.
Newton has some prospects considering a move into town, but it's hairy at best. God bless 'em all. Please, God, really, bless 'em.
I've never found Seinfeld unfunny, not really. Watch the documentary "Comedian" to get a feel for how hard Seinfeld works and the respect he has for the craft.
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