ON THE DL

DL Daily: Where Words Are Dangerous

A busy weekend creates a busy Monday morning show. Thanks for tagging along.

The Weekend That Was:

After recapping the weekend -- full of birthday parties and Mother’s Day festivities and....gardening -- we talk about the top story of the weekend: Mark Cuban’s head exploding.

Nick and I go over the controversy in the Denver-Dallas series. Well, since the no-call turned into a majestic shot for Carmelo Anthony to propel Denver to a 3-0 lead, I hasten to call it a series anymore. Conspiracies abound. Cuban going crazy. Ah, the NBA...truly Amazing.

Nick asks if the refs are worse now than they’ve been in the past or if we’re just more aware of things. I think it comes down to technology. There are more camera angles than ever so there is more opportunity for a blown call to be evident to the viewing audience. And we’ve been conditioned to trust what we see. If some guy in a truck puts a strike zone graphic up and the ball enters that zone, we assume it’s a strike. We trust a guy in a truck more than we trust a guy behind the plate.

It brings us to a debate. Why do we need referees? Too many times we’re talking about the officials or the umps or the refs and not about the game. Why not let players call their own fouls? Nick thinks I’m nuts and we debate if it’s possible for players making millions of dollars with so much on the line to call their own fouls. There are plenty of fights on the street/rec courts. Imagine what would happen with so much at stake. My retort is that you can employ an arbitrator who has access to all the camera angles and can decide on any disputes that can’t be called on the court.

Okay, fine, the Idea is stupid. But it can work in other sports like tennis. It DOES work in golf, so why shouldn’t a smaller sport take a chance and

let the players call their own game. Technology (camera angles, CGI challenges) has surpassed what a referee can provide anyway.

And speaking of technology, can anyone tell us how they determine if a ball in tennis is in our out on a challenge call? It looks like a cheesy video game. What is the technology behind that?

Oh yes, I forgot. The Phillies screwed all our moms. No blanket yesterday, but they did get a voucher to pick it up in JULY! In addition to the voucher they were also given a crappy handout of the team in tuxes. I understand there was a production error, but the Phillies, who are usually great with this stuff, needed to do more. Give each mom a flower. Give each mom a free pink Phils shirt. Do something, Phillies.

Political Safari:

We talk about the White House Correspondents Dinner this past weekend. Why isn’t this thing on prime time? It’s hilarious. Wanda Sykes was very funny, ripping on everyone from Obama and Biden and Nancy

Pelosi to Bush and Cheney and Rush Limbaugh.

Speaking of Limbaugh, was Sykes’ joke referencing 9/11 too far to go? Bob Ley - yes ESPN anchor extraordinaire Bob Ley - thought so. During his Sunday Morning SportsCenter where he looks more like a chaperone to the junior prom for David Lloyd and Cindy Brunson than a venerable newsman, Ley dropped in a dig at Sykes for making the comment about Limbaugh as a terrorist. Was it THAT bad? Was it worth a mention on SportsCenter? And like Hitler jokes, if you’re going to make a joke about 9/11..is that Kosher? It really has to be funny, doesn’t it?

Also, Obama was hilarious. Or we should say whoever wrote Obama’s speech was hilarious. And panning the crowd during the speeches is gold. Rahm Imanuel was in tears during Sykes’ routine. Barbara Walters...not so much. Again, put this thing in prime time and relegate the boring pressers to CSPAN!

Prints Not Dead:

This segment could be called “I’m a douche.” I was set to rip on Mike Florio from PFT for ripping bloggers when I stopped and thought I should ask him if he was ripping bloggers or if he was trying to be funny. His reply: ‘um, i'm a blogger. it was a crack on all the cracks that get made about the folks who do what i do.’

Touche. I’m a douche. But I did reply with the reminder that he’s said many times, including on this show, that he doesn’t consider himself a blogger. So a lawyer in a suit who doesn’t consider himself a blogger may sound like he’s taking shots at bloggers and not making a joke about one of his own. (Did Florio convert just for the jokes? And YES, Mike, the Seinfeld reference was just for you).

This brings up the question -- can we read sarcasm? Have we become so saturated with media and texts and Twitters that our ‘true meaning of how something is written’ filter is breaking? Or am I just a douche for not being able to tell when someone is making a joke?

Housekeeping:

Kevin Kaduk from Yahoo on the show tomorrow. And Nick is going to Nawlins! Give him some tips of things to do while there. Make them food related.

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