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The Daily Dose/October 16, 2007
By Gaylon Kent
The Writer's Shack
DYING WISH: Convicted murderer William Castillo woke up Monday morning fully expecting to be dead Monday night. Not only fully expecting to, but fully wanting to. He was scheduled to be the 13th person executed by Nevada since 1977, and the twelfth by choice in that wonderfully libertarian state that usually does not execute people unless they really want to go. Castillo had dropped his appeals and had instructed his lawyer not to interfere with his death.
Whoops! Someone forgot to tell the buttinski's at the ACLU, who showed total disregard for Castillo's wishes and appealed to the Nevada Supreme Court, who issued a stay so issues regarding the use of lethal injection could be further investigated.
Close, But No Cigar: The stay came at 7pm, an hour and a half before Castillo was scheduled to die. He had already been moved to the death watch cell, across from the death chamber, and had been given his last meal. He had been given a sedative, and, figuring this was his last chance for free, government supplied sedatives for awhile, requested and received another sedative before being returned to death row.
Dry, Technical Matter: You know, were not really big death penalty fans here at the Writer's Shack. Too many people have been killed as punishment for crimes they didn't commit for our taste. But if someone wants to die, screw it, let them. A third party, even a well-meaning one like the ACLU, should probably butt out.
GREAT MOMENTS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: On this date, 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis began, as President John F. Kennedy was informed that reconnaissance photographs taken over Cuba revealed the presence of missile bases in that country.
It's A Small World: On this date in 1923, Walt and Roy Disney form Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, which, following a coin flip won by Walt, would later become the Walt Disney Company.
Mexico City Olympics Redux: On 10/16/68 American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos conducted a civil rights protest on the medal stand following the awarding of Smith's gold medal and Carlos' bronze medal in the 200 meters. Though the pair is most famous for bowing their heads and holding black gloved hands aloft in a black power salute while the Star-Spangled Banner played, there were other signs of protest, too. Both received their medals shoeless, representing black poverty, and Smith wore a black scarf symbolizing black pride and Carlos wore a strand of beads in memory of blacks who had, among other things, been lynched. They each wore one glove because Carlos forgot his pair.
Great Moments In International Relations II: Silver medalist Peter Norman of Australia, about as white as you would expect someone named Peter Norman from Australia to be, showed he was on board with the protest by wearing, like Smith and Carlos did, a Olympic Project for Human Rights patch. History also records him as the one who suggested that Smith give Carlos one of his gloves.
The Rest Of The Story: Australians were no happier with Norman than white America was with Smith and Carlos. Despite having qualifying times, Norman was not selected for the 1972 Australian Olympic team. Following an injury that almost resulted in a leg being amputated, Norman battled depression and the bottle and died of a heart attack in October of last year. He was 64. Both Smith and Carlos were pall bearers at his funeral.
FunFact2: Norman's silver medal winning time of 20.06 seconds is still the Australian record for 200 meters.
BATTING THIRD: Thrilling a small, intimate nationwide cable tee vee audience, the Colorado Rockies earned their first World Series appearance Monday night, winning game four of the National League Championship Series over Arizona 6-4.
The Rockies have won ten straight, an incredible 21 of 22, have lost just once since September 16 and
They needed to. On September 16 they had lost three straight and were six-and-half games out in the NL West and four-and-half games out in the wild card race, and even with winning 13 of their last 14 they needed help from Trevor Hoffman, who obligingly twice blew leads for the San Diego Padres that would have eliminated the Rockies.
We Report, You Ignore: A small, intimate gathering isn't a completely inaccurate description. Tee vee ratings for the first two games of the NLCS were the worst ever, averaging about 4.5 million viewers in a country of over 300 million people, each of whom, on average, watch more than four of tee vee a day. This is moderately funny because TBS' ratings for the first round of the playoffs were up 18 percent over 2006, when they aired on ESPN and FOX.
The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!: Well, no it isn't. Tee vee, of course, has changed a lot since 1980. And MLB set another attendance record this past season. Despite giving us lots of reasons not to like it, we still like our grand old game; we just don't want to watch the National League playoffs, that's all.
So What's The Deal?: Baseball has only itself to blame. FOX is so concerned about its affiliates profitable newscasts that it refuses to air any game starting earlier than 8pm, and it is so adamant about this it is willing to farm the NLCS off to cable.
But you can't have games going head to head against each other. In the past, baseball would start these games in the afternoon but now they're starting them at 10pm eastern, a brilliant way to drive away fans. Plus, there are way too many commercials between innings, because baseball has yet to figure out the rarer the supply, the greater the demand, so instead of charging a lot more for fewer commercials, they are charging a lot for a lot of commercials.
This really just goes to show that no one really cares what happens out west, probably because the west doesn't get too worked up about it. Because admit it, if you put the Colorado Rockies in Boston Red Sox uniforms, everyone from FOX Sports to SportsCenter would achieve and maintain states of arousal from here to Reno from now until Thanksgiving. The Red Sox, already media darlings and favored with nauseating amounts of saturation coverage, would be come even more annoying than they are now, if that's possible.
FunFact: Since garnering a 32.8 rating and a 56 share in 1980, World Series interest has dwindled to 10.1 and a 17 share last year, the lowest rated World Series ever.
Money Time: The big question is: does FOX have what it takes to pull in the lowest rated World Series ever?
Well, they continue to give a microphone to Tim McCarver, so sure, the potential is there. They should really just let the talented Joe Buck handle matters himself, or, better yet, Joe Buck and Vin Scully. And if the country is force fed a Colorado/Cleveland World Series, then, yes, they certainly can deliver the lowest rated World Series ever, even though from the purely baseball standpoint that now bores executives at both MLB and FOX, it would be a hum-dinger of a series. And they have to promise to continue to foist their annoying, tedious coverage off on us. The crap where every other shot is of some family member we care nothing about and every shot flashes on the screen for no more than a third of a second which is still more than enough time to ensure McCarver can open his yap.
One More Thing? Also, can you cram more commercials between innings? We're just curious. Because this will insure that games end even later!
Well, Maybe One More: The Rockies will have eight days off before beginning the World Series in either Cleveland or Boston on October 24.
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