Pay A Little Attention. Please.

  Sometimes you watch TV with interest. Other times you just have it on as background while doing a plethora of other things. And if your significant other is watching and semi-paying attention, you ask them what has happened. 

You couldn’t do that last Saturday night with George Clooney’s live performance of his hit Broadway play, Good Night, and Good Luck. CNN ventured where no network had gone before and presented the action live, not on tape. 

The story of journalist Edward R. Murrow and his fight to bring down Joseph Mc Carthy, the anti-Communist Senator from Wisconsin, whose hurtful rhetoric and attacks ruined so many careers and lives, was masterfully portrayed by Clooney. Much of the theme has applicability today. A montage of events after the 1950’s when the events depicted occurred showed how much has not changed after so much change in the 70 years since Mc Carthy. 

Now I liked the play. The acting was first rate. Clooney was much better on stage than I ever believed he would be. And I have enjoyed him in his many movie roles. 

I didn’t like the closeups of the actors, because that’s just not going to happen if you were sitting in the audience. No matter how rapt your attention might be, you would still occasionally check out how the crowd reacted to a particular scene or comment. Whether you were seated in the upper reaches of the balcony or in the first ten rows. 

My temptation to switch to the Red Sox-Yankees broadcast on FOX was tempered by my promise to my wife to watch Clooney act. Given that after we watched the play and the panel discussion afterwards led by Anderson Cooper (Connie Chung said too much which had little applicability to the topics raised), we still were able to watch the Yankees go down in flames to the suddenly awakened Boston bats. That was the only national TV game involving  MLB, the NBA or NHL. A fortuitous circumstance, indeed. 

The final tally was over 5.4 million viewers in the United States tuned in for the performance. Most of my friends watched. We are in our 70’s Yet I was bitterly disappointed that the numbers didn’t reach into much higher numbers given how easily accessible CNN made this program. Young people had very little interest and, after all, it was a Saturday night and do you say to your date: let’s stay home and watch George Clooney or would you rather do anything else? 

I refrain from getting political when I write these blogs. I am not going to start now. It is a volatile time in our lives—something which I never thought could happen. Given the climate in this nation and who is in power, what is happening could have been expected given the results of the 2024 election and may become even more dramatic. 

Which is why I return time and time again to sports. For escape. Even if I sometimes lose a gasket rooting for the Jets or Yankees. 

As I write this blog, we are in the midst of two highly competitive championship series. With not that many people engaged in them outside of South Florida, Edmonton, Oklahoma and Indiana. 

Viewership rises when the big cities are in play. Had the New York Knicks punched their ticket to the NBA Finals instead of the Indiana Pacers, the numbers would have been much, much higher. Even if they were playing Oklahoma City, not the Los Angeles Lakers (Unfortunately for NYK fans, the team is going about finding a new head coach like the clowns who come to the Garden for the circus—with no real purpose or direction). 

Ditto even with the rematch between Edmonton and Florida for the Stanley Cup. Not much traction in the big US cities. For example, New York Rangers fans were more focused on the trade of team veteran Chris Kreider to Anaheim. Kreider had played for the Blueshirts since 2011-12 and is high up on the all-time records for the franchise. Gone from NYC is perhaps a Hall of Fame caliber player, one whose jersey number should hang proudly among the retired ones in the rafters of MSG? 

Which is too bad, since the games have been riveting. Three of the first four hockey games went to overtime after one team sent through a last minute comeback to tie the score. Over in the NBA, Indiana, a supposedly big underdog, was more than holding its own against the big, bad Thunder. 

Indiana appeared to be in control on Friday night, ready to take a commanding 3-1 series lead. Until the M.V.P. took over. 

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander put up 15 of the last 16 Oklahoma City points to lead his team to a come-from-behind victory on the road and knot the series at 2.  SGA’s 15 points were the most by a player in the final five minutes of a Finals game. His 14 clutch points during that period are a Finals record. He put the team on his back and he may have turned the tide in favor of OKC. 

I cannot assuredly say that these series will go the distance and include seven marvelously played contests in each one. But the way each team has been playing, that seems to be more of a possibility than many experts had thought. 

The fans in each participating city have been loud and boisterous. I saw a video which showed how loud it was in Edmonton—the singing the Canadian National Anthem was heard clearly on the streets of the city and not immediately adjacent to the arena. That is partisan fervor and nationalism coming together. 

Moreover, some big time personalities have been in attendance. For Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals, there was Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift in a suite watching and seemingly enjoying the action on the ice and interacting with a few fans. Plus America’s the sweetheart (and a Swift herself), Caitlin Clark, was joined by two Fever teammates in seats under the basket across from the Pacers’ bench. Clark is expected to be back in action against the undefeated New York Liberty this Saturday after recovering from a leg injury. 

Yes, I watched baseball this week. Probably more than I should have. The Yankees arose from their beatdown by the Red Sox in time to sweep Kansas City. Max Fried was once more his masterful self on the mound and Aaron Judge was swatting balls out of the ballpark in multiple games, including a monster shot that was grossly underestimated in distance. No greater authority on tape measure blasts than Hall of Fame slugger Reggie Jackson, who was in attendance at Kauffman Stadium, said that the ball Judge crushed was hit well over 500 feet.  

Same thing with Judge’s incredible blast off of Boston’s Garrett Crochet with one out in the ninth on Friday night to tie the game at 1. The ball traveled high over the Green Monster at Fenway Park and onto Lansdowne Street. Unfortunately, New York lost when two 10th inning challenges did not go its way, which resulted in Manager Aaron Boone and second baseman DJ LeMahieu getting tossed from the game. Because they thought the umpires got the calls really wrong. 

In checking the standings, Detroit, with its strong pitching, has the best record in the American League. Tarik Skubal, the reigning AL Cy Young Award winner, looks even better. It will be some race between him and Fried to see how wins the trophy this year. 

While the Yankees’ record is close to that of the Tigers, the Bombers may not be the best team in the city. The Mets are beating up on whomever they are playing—until the bullpen imploded on Friday night versus Tampa Bay. Pete Alonso is hammering the ball and the Mets have enough star power to repeatedly comeback and win games which seemed lost. Those two rivals meet on July 4th weekend. Talk about fireworks in Queens before the Macy’s show on the East River for our nation’s birthday. 

I still found time to read as many sports stories as I could. I first need to backtrack a bit. 

When Texas Tech and Texas made it to the NCAA Softball Championship, that meant that the perennial champion Oklahoma Sooners had been dethroned. Outside of those devotees to college softball, very few knew how good the Sooners were. 

Try that they are eight-time national champions, having won four in a row heading into the 2025 playoffs. It took a masterful effort by Tech to eliminate OU. Besides, Texas was better than both this season—even if ranked only sixth. 

Cry no tears for the Sooners. They have reloaded via the transfer portal and seem poised to strongly contend for their ninth title. They certainly take losing badly in Norman. 

Meanwhile, the College World Series is underway in Omaha, Nebraska, in a beautiful ballpark adjacent to the Missouri River. There are the powerhouses playing for the trophy. UCLA; Oregon State; LSU; Louisville; Arizona and a newbie in Arkansas. 

The feel good stories are Coastal Carolina and Murray State. You might not know where those schools are located. The CCU Chanticleers and MSU Racers are from non-power conferences. No national titles in baseball between them at this level. But both teams are poised to deliver knockout blows like they did in the earlier rounds. Could Cinderella make it to the final two? 

My editor is away. My hunting for typos needs to improve. I guess, like everything else I discussed, you just have to pay a little attention. Please.