Goldfinger: This is gold, Mr Bond. All my life, I've been in love with its colour, its brilliance, its divine heaviness. I welcome any enterprise that will increase my stock,which is considerable.
Bond: I think you've made your point. Thank you for the demonstration.
Goldfinger: Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr Bond. It may be your last. The purpose of our two encounters is now very clear to me. I do not intend to be distracted by another. Good night, Mr Bond.
Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
Bond: I think you've made your point. Thank you for the demonstration.
Goldfinger: Choose your next witticism carefully, Mr Bond. It may be your last. The purpose of our two encounters is now very clear to me. I do not intend to be distracted by another. Good night, Mr Bond.
Bond: Do you expect me to talk?
Goldfinger: No, Mr Bond! I expect you to die!
Don’t fool yourself, it is the villains that make every Bond movie worthwhile. Think about it…Bond remains essentially the same from movie to movie (excluding of course the necessary actor changes), the same suits, the same biting wit, the same womanizing, the same cars. The movie really centers around the villain and the current plot to dominate (fill in whatever might be worth dominating here). Without their antagonism, Bond is just a murderous playboy with a drinking problem and intimacy issues. In the scene above, had there been no laser, no nefarious scheme, no dénouement to Bond’s investigation…had Scotland yard simply burst in and arrested Goldfinger and his henchmen, carried off with cries of “Curse you James Bond!”, we would all have yawned and relegated the movie to the bowels of cinematic hum-drum, never to be seen from again. Antagonism is therefore essential for a movie to have relevance.
Which brings us to the 2008 Home Run Derby…or any years Home Run Derby for that matter. Irrelevant. Not because the fans don’t flock to it. Neither is it because there isn't some philanthropic gain, the monies donated to charity which are indeed plentiful. It is irrelevant because there is no antagonism. For the amount of money these players make per game, when Steve from accounting stands up to pitch a ball at you, you had BETTER be able to peel the leather off of it and send it into another time zone, with a crack similar to the Concord breaking Mach 2.2
. What is the allure? Why are fans drawn to it year after year? I will admit that, for the most part, I am a baseball purist. I love the drama between pitcher and batter. I appreciate a well executed squeeze-play, or hit and run. I cry over the occasional 5-4-3 double play. While I don’t deny the allure of the long ball, especially when deep within the pitch count, the entertainment value of jacking one after another from the stadium is completely lost on me. In particular when facing someone who serves up pitches which are dressed in their finest “remove me from the park please” party dress. Without the antagonism of a skilled pitcher, without the mettle-to-mettle back and forth. It is pointless.
To prove my point, let’s examine the reciprocal. Well call it the 2009 Strike Out Derby. It will pit the likes of Lincecum, Santana and Sanchez hurling their best stuff towards, you guessed it…Steve from accounting. Ridiculous right? What do you
think Sandy Koufax, or better yet, Nolan Ryan would say about such an event. Men who faced some of the best batters in history and managed to accomplish the improbable feat of multiple no-hitters. The same holds true for home run hitters. The doping debate aside, it requires tremendous skill and dedication to your craft to thump 500 home runs over a career. More than that and you reach demi-god status. If we want to honor the deep drive, why not do so in a way that is truly honorable to the men who hit them and the sport that affords the opportunity. Perhaps have the fans come together annually at EACH stadium and play a video profile of a hitter or hitters who have distinguished themselves as home run kings, then followed by a montage of the years best rips so far. Kind of an old vs. new type thing. Then let the kids down on the field, put a bat in their hand and let them face Steve from accounting. Who knows…maybe in this way we could see one of the future greats before they were such. That is an event I would pay to go to or even be enticed into watching on the telly.
Don’t fool yourself, it is the villains that make every Bond movie worthwhile. Think about it…Bond remains essentially the same from movie to movie (excluding of course the necessary actor changes), the same suits, the same biting wit, the same womanizing, the same cars. The movie really centers around the villain and the current plot to dominate (fill in whatever might be worth dominating here). Without their antagonism, Bond is just a murderous playboy with a drinking problem and intimacy issues. In the scene above, had there been no laser, no nefarious scheme, no dénouement to Bond’s investigation…had Scotland yard simply burst in and arrested Goldfinger and his henchmen, carried off with cries of “Curse you James Bond!”, we would all have yawned and relegated the movie to the bowels of cinematic hum-drum, never to be seen from again. Antagonism is therefore essential for a movie to have relevance.
Which brings us to the 2008 Home Run Derby…or any years Home Run Derby for that matter. Irrelevant. Not because the fans don’t flock to it. Neither is it because there isn't some philanthropic gain, the monies donated to charity which are indeed plentiful. It is irrelevant because there is no antagonism. For the amount of money these players make per game, when Steve from accounting stands up to pitch a ball at you, you had BETTER be able to peel the leather off of it and send it into another time zone, with a crack similar to the Concord breaking Mach 2.2
. What is the allure? Why are fans drawn to it year after year? I will admit that, for the most part, I am a baseball purist. I love the drama between pitcher and batter. I appreciate a well executed squeeze-play, or hit and run. I cry over the occasional 5-4-3 double play. While I don’t deny the allure of the long ball, especially when deep within the pitch count, the entertainment value of jacking one after another from the stadium is completely lost on me. In particular when facing someone who serves up pitches which are dressed in their finest “remove me from the park please” party dress. Without the antagonism of a skilled pitcher, without the mettle-to-mettle back and forth. It is pointless.To prove my point, let’s examine the reciprocal. Well call it the 2009 Strike Out Derby. It will pit the likes of Lincecum, Santana and Sanchez hurling their best stuff towards, you guessed it…Steve from accounting. Ridiculous right? What do you
think Sandy Koufax, or better yet, Nolan Ryan would say about such an event. Men who faced some of the best batters in history and managed to accomplish the improbable feat of multiple no-hitters. The same holds true for home run hitters. The doping debate aside, it requires tremendous skill and dedication to your craft to thump 500 home runs over a career. More than that and you reach demi-god status. If we want to honor the deep drive, why not do so in a way that is truly honorable to the men who hit them and the sport that affords the opportunity. Perhaps have the fans come together annually at EACH stadium and play a video profile of a hitter or hitters who have distinguished themselves as home run kings, then followed by a montage of the years best rips so far. Kind of an old vs. new type thing. Then let the kids down on the field, put a bat in their hand and let them face Steve from accounting. Who knows…maybe in this way we could see one of the future greats before they were such. That is an event I would pay to go to or even be enticed into watching on the telly. 
1 comments:
Steve from Accounting? LOL.
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