30 for 30 running thread

I thought the Jordan doc was interesting but not nearly as good as the last few in the series.

It was kind of interesting to hear Francona say if Jordan had stuck with it he likely would have made the bigs.

 

Anyone other than a crazy sob from New Brighton saying that?

 

I kind of wonder about that as well. I mean, .200 in AA isn't great, but in context - .200 as a 31-year-old after not playing for more than a decade - it is a bit more understandable. I haven't seen the doc, so did they give a reason for why Jordan started right at AA? I imagine it was partly monetary, and partly that if he was going to have a future, he would have to pretty much do it right away.

Ultimately though, his stint in baseball was totally worth it - How else could you have made Space Jam??? I mean, come on.

 

He also said it based on his rapid improvement and how much he worked. He threw in there that Jordan improved his average to .250 against the same and better players at the Arizona Fall League. More or less said it took many, many years for players to catch on to that kind of pitching, etc., and took him only a few months. Now how much validity it all has is left open for debate, but it's still interesting that he said it.

 

"Little Big Men" was on last night, a look at the 1982 Kirkland, Wash., Little League team that beat Taiwan in the LLWS.

Really well done, and it's a cautionary tale for parents that reminds people that 12-year-olds simply aren't ready mentally to handle the sort of fame that comes with winning the whole thing.

 

I started to watch, but after 20 minutes, it just did not grab me.

I thought every little league in America team has the big kid that flames out, and a bunch of other kids who have their own stories to tell.

Honestly, for me it would be more interesting to learn about the pressure on the Taiwan kids.

 

A cautionary tale from the network which has exponentially increased the TV coverage of Little League over the last decade. Sort of like if Billy Mays had lectured people on the perils of impulse buying.

 

This is a very good point, Boomer.

Devil, the gist of it wasn't the pressure on the kids to WIN the series, it was how they were treated afterward, and how kids that age just aren't comfortable dealing with the spotlight. They were talking about parents calling Cody Webster, the pitcher, a "fat motherfucker" in subsequent leagues. He ended up burning out on baseball by age 17 because of it.

 

I understand that, but the "lead" of the show just did not make me want to watch the end.

 

What caught my eye during "Little Big Men" was some of the design things that were probably commonplace back then, but would be deemed atrocious now. Now, we can adjust a headline to the exact point and tracking we need to really fill out a space. It was clear they didn't have that option in 1982 (admittedly, before I was born). Almost none of the headlines filled the hole, and some looked as much as an inch or more away from doing so.

On another note, I'm *so* stoked for next week's one on Tyson and 2Pac.

 

Next Tuesday is the Mike Tyson-Tupac Shakur one.

I WILL be watching that one, no doubt.

 

What's the favorite so far?

I really liked the Johnny Knoxville produced one about the bike jumper. That was suprisingly good.

The USFL one was great as well. Ricky Williams was great.