Monday, June 16, 2008

In further defence of the Tother

Just as a quick rejoinder to the Nerdinista's newly united offensive against Mike Toth's high-larious Gary Carter love-in...

We've heard it from a bevy of sources, so let's get the obligatory linkage out there first: the Mike Wilner Fan Club Blog, mostly by linking to Cox Bloc's take on it (awesome headline banner on that site, by the way), and Fire Joe Morgan gave it what Neate called "the treatment" (though an uncharacteristically brief mockery is hardly going to make that fine blog's wall of fame, I'm ready to predict). Finally, Neate's oft-recycled and rephrased take (just kidding, I love ya man) has made the rounds of various comment threads.

But did any of you take the time to think about just why, precisely, an otherwise successful broadcaster would postulate such a seemingly insane line of reasoning?

Maybe if you all had tried to think of his rationale in another way, you might've been a bit more successful in avoiding the trap that Mr. Toth had clearly laid out for the geek brigade.

Would any of you be writing about your favourite topic - the uselessness of the RBI - if not for Toth's little mention in his column? Would you guys have been able to compete to see who could produce the most hilarious comparisons of managers with vastly differing RBI totals and management abilities, if not for him? Would you have been able to spend but five minutes crafting what you all believed to be comedy gold, allowing yourselves hours afterwards to laugh at your own jokes, if the Tother hadn't put forth that maze of crossed logic?

Absolutely not. And you're all still talking about him days after the whole feud with Wilner has died down.

You know what a psychiatrist would say to you bloggers? You're all secretly in love with the Tothmeister.

"Yesterday's show really seems to have created a lot of interest, which as you know, is the whole idea behind what we do..."
-Mike Toth

7 comments:

sager said...

There are 100 baseball topics that are more interesting than the media's overemphasis on RBIs, and besides, you could write that post any time, since in any week there's 100 other idiots talking about RBIs.

(Tyler is fully aware of the irony of writing two posts on a subject in order to criticize people for belabouring the point.)

... anyways, I post links so people see what's out there on a topic, because we don't have ultimate knowledge ... it is kind of my role as the guy who started the site, you know.

Tyler King said...

Wasn't criticizing linking, though, so don't take offence. It'd be pretty hypocritical considering I've done it in all of my posts here so far.

And yeah, people are often talking about RBIs, but not with Mike Toth as centrepiece.

Hey, did you notice that DJF mentioned you briefly on their podcast and pronounced your name "Neet Sagger"? *I* knew how to pronounce it right even *before* you told me.

So don't be hatin'.

sager said...

As in the neet's-foot oil you rub into your glove? Sweet.

I'll have to listen for that.

Incidentally, all you need to know about RBI ... Joe Carter only had one less season with 100 RBI than Henry Aaron. You could look it up.

There's no hating on this end... in the words of Jackie Moon, "E ... L ... E ... Everybody Love Everybody."

Tyler King said...

Good to hear. Because otherwise our weekly radio meetings would be awwwwwkwaaaaaaard.

And Joe Carter is a blessing to anyone who doesn't like RBI.

Tyler King said...

And don't listen for that.

Last week they said Rob Faulds was a good play by play man.

God only knows what's up next.

sager said...

Hey, they got the last name right! Say-ger, with a hard G, the same way you say it ... not Seger, or Sanger.

There's plenty of examples that prove RBI are useless, but you know them already.

Tyler King said...

Sounded more like "Sah-ger" to me. And they still didn't get the first name right.

And yeah, obviously there are plenty of examples, I'm saying Joe Carter is one of the easiest and most prominent.