We’re not particularly enamored of Dickie V and his shtick; frankly, we’re Bill Raftery guys. Vitale long ago jumped the shark, morphing from passionate hoops aficionado to shameless coach-stroking caricature. While we love college basketball, we admit that watching Vitale’s telecasts is a bit of a struggle.
Like nearly everything in our popular culture that reaches (and exceeds) the saturation point, backlash is inevitable. See Spears, Britney among many, many others. It’s easy for those of us in the blogosphere to merrily blast away at the icons of our age, and we suppose it makes us all feel just a little bit superior in some small way. But when we see With Leather (one of our favorites, generally speaking) post a headline that reads “I Hope It’s Cancer” in reference to Vitale’s illness, well, y’know, there are some bridges too far.
I don’t particularly like Dick Vitale’s game-calling anymore. I don’t enjoy the larger-than-the-game personality cult nonsense. But I’ll tell you this: I envy the man’s passion. Would that we could all enjoy our jobs as much as he clearly does his. Maybe that enjoyment would temper the knee-jerk need to tear down those that seem to be beating us on the “hey, life is great” scale.
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Addendum: MGL's got a neat and personal Dickie V. story over at CAA:LAMM that underscores the passion side of the ledger.
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18 comments:
I totally agree, Robert. Vitale is annoying and a self-caricature at worst but generally is a seemingly well-meaning guy who has a surplus of energy and is bankrupt of insight. He doesn't warrant wishing the big C upon him. We should reserve that for people who deserve it...like Gloria Estefan and Bill O'Reilly.
someday, the true story regarding geoff and ms. estefan will come out. and we'll all have a good cry.
Nothing means "soulful, passionate music" quite like "Miami Sound Machine".
(In Raftery's voice):
He shuffled the puppies!!
cnn.com, continuing to bolster its stellar reputation as a bastion of journalism:
"what will you tell your kids about britney's sister?"
well, cnn, first i'll start with the old chestnut: she's a fucking whore. then, i'll hit 'em with: but why the fuck is that front-page on cnn.com?
'cause i'm pretty sure my kids will swear and i want them to learn how to do it from me. i'm pretty fucking good at it, if i do say so myself.
another dreadful night for the caa. odu loses to richmond (oof), uncw falls to coastal carolina (blech), towson blows a lead and loses to lafayette, northeastern barely escapes harvard. delaware saves the conference's honor with an easy win over a decent vermont team.
say it with me kids: it's a one-bid league, after all.
Picturing Rob telling his kids (who I assume to be quite young) that the younger Spears is a "fucking whore" just made me spit up my drink.
yes, they're 6 and 3, and both girls. too young, you think?
Never too young Rob...never too young.
Also, check out the website I posted at the Wheelhouse. It seems like this information might be handy for you to have...
i'm a bit leery of venturing to that website here in the office, but will be checking it out from home. i know for a fact that i can take one 6 year-old and one 3 year-old simultaneously.
God, I hope so...
I'm sure God hopes so too...
I think God's a little busy planning Baby J's birthday party right now. Bounce houses don't rent themselves, you know...
Stu Scott is going to undergo chemotherapy for cancer. Let's hope With Leather resists temptation.
tribe finally gets back into action tonight at home against vmi. really a game they should win, though the keydets did surprise jmu this season. got a baaad feeling about this one, unfortunately. hopefully the stank of the 2007 caa doesn't rub off on the tribe. first game with the stupid new logo, too. may be a hangover.
New logo, new era for Tribe men's hoops. You read it here first. Those damn feathers were holding 'em back.
VMI 83, W&M 72. Whoops.
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