Our latest passion is listening to the “Car Guys” on PBS radio whilst driving to work on Saturday mornings. Two brothers, auto mechanics, field questions from listeners and offer their solutions to the broken car dilemmas of the world. We are happy for the satellite radio in the new Jetta which allows us to listen in the car.
If you have not discovered these two gems, you should go looking for them. The show is entertaining, very funny, and actually a bit informative, without the pernicious propaganda that floats the rest of that network. We laugh all the way to the clinic, which if you have to work on Saturday is the best way to approach the task.
Our son who resides in Germany turned us on to this show. Because the sun rises and sets on a different schedule over there, he tunes in his computer to a preserved version of the radio show on the PBS website, most every Saturday evening, upside-down time. He is a regular listener. He also follows the Oakland Athletics via the computer on weekends during baseball season. This is an act of self-sacrifice and dedication, for the A’s haven’t done much to shower reflected glory upon their fans for some time.
Not long ago, as the Saturday evening time for firing up the computer for the “Car Guys” drew near, he got all excited, and his lovely wife looked at him quizzically. For why was he so excited? To which he replied, with a question, “What happens every Saturday?”
And she answered, smiling, “Oakland loses.”
He was of course, destroyed by her brutal but brilliant observation. Briefly. Likely, he will survive, but with spring training upon us, and the A’s embarking upon yet another season with a bunch of brilliant young prospects still in diapers, and the latest in a long line of overpaid has-beens new to the roster, he must steel himself with the sure knowledge that his wife is always right.
Oakland is the farm team for most of the big leagues. They recruit many of the best young baseball prospects, coach them into competency, play them for a year or three, and just as soon as they round into star players, let them move to other teams willing to pay the ridiculous volumes of money that pro athletes demand these days. And the A’s fans watch these players in the playoffs and the World Series, as those other teams prosper, and Oakland…well, you know.
Each spring the news of the signing of yet another over the hill formerly talented slugger, the latest attempt to propel the A’s into greatness, momentarily excites the fans. And until we actually see the potbellies, and the limping, and those tire tracks across their backs, we harbor hope. For hope springs eternal, in the spring in baseball.
Don’t ask me for the long list of names of these disappointing athletic has-beens that the A’s have fielded over the last few years, for as forgettable as their performances have been, I have forgotten them. But now I discover that the A’s signed Manny Ramirez this year. Once a brilliantly talented but occasionally recalcitrant and perverse athlete, this guy has morphed over the years into an occasionally talented and persistently recalcitrant and obnoxious embarrassment. And then last year he resorted to cheating with banned drugs (again), so he won’t even be allowed to play until a lengthy suspension is used up. The man is a monument to wasted talent and opportunity, a narcissistic and morally destitute annoyance to decent folks, an embarrassment to all who associate with him. The A’s have signed the baseball equivalent of Newt Gingrich.
I plan to follow the A’s again this year. This is mostly out of habit and convenience, rather than passion. If the truth be told, I’m still a Cubs fan, for that runs in my genes. I find it inconvenient to follow the Cubs from this distance, although it is easier to find a televised Cubs game than an A’s game for some reason. I guess the Cubs are still trying. Lately, it feels like the A’s are tanking on purpose.
Each election cycle brings some of the same perking of interest as spring training in baseball. Eventually reality brings back the nausea and disinterest, and disgust. I’m a charter member of the anybodybutobama club. It is difficult for me to imagine how we put such a dangerous agent in charge of the country, and the best way to limit the damage he has done is to rid ourselves of him as soon as possible. Most conscious citizens have caught on to the guy by now, and anybody, including the Three Stooges could defeat him easily in the coming election. But somehow the loyal opposition doesn’t seem able to find a Curly, Moe, or even a Larry to run against him. I’m thinking the same guy who picks veteran sluggers for the A’s has been recruited to pick the republican candidates. No one will know who to vote against this year, for it is a target rich environment.
Thus our country slides further and faster down that slippery slope.
Obama or Manny. As a wise friend I know likes to proclaim at times like this…We are doomed.
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