Monday, February 23, 2009

Max Kellerman's Monday Musings - Vol XLII - Murphy, Manuel, Millions and Memories

Today's Max Kellerman show (in my opinion) was not typical Max - a little basketball, a little baseball, some hockey and no Giants. Still there were some usual Max elements. I'll try to recap the high points in this post.

Max started off by asking the listeners how their weekend was. He immediately asked himself why he did that, since he said that in real life he hates small talk. Maybe he was talking to Louie and Lundberg, but did not want to let on that he was breaking the ban. Max let it slip about a week and a half ago that he can no longer talk to his producers. Unlike previous "bans", Max no longer mentions the producers by name. The listeners have apparently been muzzled as well, since I have not heard any "free louie and lundberg" calls. The only reason I am not doubting whether Louie and Lundberg are still on the show is that they are still featured on the show's home page http://stations.espn.go.com/stations/1050espnradio/show?showId=Max .

Max spent a little time at the beginning of the show on Jerry Manuel's announcement that Daniel Murphy will be starting for the Mets and that Ryan Church would be platooning with Fernando Tatis. Max wondered whether Church was in Manuel's doghouse. He also performed a feat of sabermetric analysis in talking about how the numbers from Murphy's AA and partial season with the Mets project him as an MLB player.

There was a great piece on Jim Calhoun and his press conference outburst at a "freelance reporter" who challenged him on his salary deal. Calhoun completed dressed down the reporter (and in my opinion rightfully so) for bringing the topic up at the press conference. He also mentioned that the UConn basketball program makes $12M a year for the school. No small feat when your program is in Storrs, CT - more than an hour away from any decent size city. As such, Max defended the salary that Calhoun makes (not that he really needed defending).

Max tied the Calhoun controversy into the ever present debate over Citibank and the naming rights at the new Mets stadium. Max correctly pointed out that big business needs advertising and that Citibank could justifiably spend $20 million on advertising. He then asked rhetorically whether people were saying that bailed out companies are not allowed to advertise (look out Detroit if that happens).

As usual, Max let a little of his personal life into the show. He talked about his wet socks, but I'll skip that one if its OK with you. The more interesting discussion came when he spoke about taking his three month old daughter (Esther) to visit his grandmother who is in a nursing home. He openly questioned why he had done this, because Esther nor his grandmother will have any memory of the event. He also talked about how all the old people wanted to touch Esther and how she keeps putting her hands in her mouth. I can sympathize with Max about the germ issue, but have to disagree with him about the memories. While he is correct that they may not remember it (I don't know what his grandmother has, but Alzheimer's and other age related memory loss is a horrible thing) there are ways to make it a positive experience for the long term. We took pictures of our older children with some of Sarah's grandparents when our kids were little. I am certain that her grandmother did not know who Penina was when we took the picture, due to her grandmother's advanced illness. However, by taking video and still pictures of my children interacting with their great grandparents, my kids will be able to do more than just listen to stories about their ancestors.

Speaking of Esther, Max returned to a familiar rant of his which has a link to Torah thought. Max talked about how he is "always getting ripped off" since his thoughts appear uncredited on TV shows or newspaper columns or even on the ESPN website. The concept of giving proper attribution can be found in the book of Esther which we will read in a few weeks. In Esther 2:22, the Megillah recites that Esther told the King in the name of Mordechai how Bigsan and Teresh were planning to kill the king. R' Elazar in the name of R' Chanina states in Gemara Megillah (15a) that this is a proof that whoever recites a saying in the name of the one he heard it from will bring redemption to the world. By telling the king that Mordechai was the source, Mordechai was recorded in the king's book as one who was owed a reward. This later set in play the saving of the Jewish people which began when the king could not sleep and asked that the book be read to him.

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