Phillyist: Philly vs. LA and the Cult of Sensationalism

Middleman

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 03:35:54 -0500

here/hear

Mike Muller

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:30:06 -0500

Yes, why not? Realization of the problem is the first step to remedying that problem.

Los Angeles

Mon, 13 Oct 2008 13:52:47 -0500

"We should all make a concentrated effort to ignore these blowhards..." starting with an entire post about them, sent to all the -Ist sites.

j72leo

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:17:34 -0500

Of course they have tofu dogs. But real Dodger Dogs are actually worth the hype. Just as I tell people here that these imitation places can't touch Jim's steaks, I insist to you the real Dodger Dogs are delightful. Although they did face lawsuits from several groups, including Mormons, according to my wife, for cooking them in beer. I have to weigh in on this, as you know, as a lifelong Philly fan living in LA. I don't know this Simers guy, but I've found all the respectable sports people and he isn't one of them. Berating Philly is such an easy thing to do if you don't live there. It's unfair, but usually, they're just empty jokes. I'm hearing a lot of cracks this week on the radio, and when I actually met these 2 guys I listen to a few years ago at a campus event, they gave me the requisite chuckle and a few "How do you live with yourself?" and "We feel sorry for you" lines. They weren't being entirely serious. As you pointed out, this guy is, and no one likes him. As for LA fans, it's not even close to Philly's intensity on a whole, but it's also not as lax as you think. It's a mix, depending on demographics. The Dodgers and Lakers have been out here long enough so that several generations have grown up watching them. It's very cultural - rich white folk who just moved here or have parents in the film biz hop on the bandwagon, but the working class and minorities can be nearly as intense as us. I wore my Phils hat to work this week, and I expected a few jabs from coworkers that grew up here, but I also got cussed out in the street in Spanish. I forgot that there are just so many people here, that even if only 30 % of the city is super-intense about sports, that's still a whole lot of effing people. So don't totally accept the stereotype that all Dodgers fans get there in the third inning; a lot do (and eff up my commute) but that's not what I would consider a real fan anyway. As for the Angels, well, their only base is the O.C., so they're all morons. I'm excited but I'm seeing that this week might be very testy for me. One of the underrated aspects of the Manny trade is going from Boston to a market with a huge Latino population. Manny Mania is bigger than I ever expected. I was joking about him being the MVP if they gave MVP awards for August and September only, and I got some hard looks. This will be interesting..

Mike Muller

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 16:11:27 -0500

I don't know. That was just kind of an LA stereotype. They probably do have Tofu Dogs in Dodger Stadium. Anyway, I realize I'm walking a fine line of hypocrisy here by writing a pseudo-angry article about sportswriters taking themselves too seriously, but I think it's a symptom of something larger across all media (news included). It's a theory I call "Write to Incite" where, basically, if you have nothing intelligent to say, you just blurt out something controversial to get people to pay attention to you. It's what seperates, say, Anderson Cooper and Glen Beck or John Bucciogross from TJ Simers. At the end of the day, though, we should all just be able to call them douches and not worry about them. It's the suckers that buy into the controversey that worry me. In the interest of not taking MYself too seriously, though, I'm gonna say who cares.

Cropulis

Thu, 09 Oct 2008 15:26:04 -0500

To be honest, most sports writers wish they were something they aren't. Sports and other Entertainment writers need to know that it's just a game/album/movie/work of literature and not the end all be all that they make it. Maybe that's the old Roman spirit in us where actually sports like the fights in the Colosseum actually mattered because they were life and death situations. We still have this notion that it really matters that Philadelphia will kick L.A.'s ass this week and that if you write something about it, it's going to change the outcome. In the long run, it's the people who take sports too seriously that make douche nozzles like Simmers or McCarver or my least favorite... Kornheiser. However, without these figures of suck, there wouldn't be something to talk about at the water cooler or at the game or something to blog about. It's just meaningless entertainment. And one thing is for damn sure, Philly fans can take it. They dish it out and we can take it because we know we aren't going to change. Do they really have Dodger Dogs that are Tofu?