Running at the Mouth

The Overweight: The Only Group You Can Still Make Fun Of

I've come to the conclusion that the overweight are the only group left in society about which it is still acceptable to make gross generalizations and cruel jokes.  How this all started is with this audioclip from a Michigan sports radio show, in which the host totally and completely loses his shit over Notre Dame's comeback against Michigan State.  You absolutely must listen to the whole thing.  I've listened to it five times now and it never gets old.  Predictably, the host sneers about Coach Weis's weight (as every anti-ND media type likes to do, because they are woefully out of their reckoning when it comes to substantively criticizing his coaching or his program), yelling that MSU let Notre Dame get to the locker room at halftime where "fatboy" could "feed them pudding."  (I'm telling you, the guy totally loses his shit.)

Then, the comments this post over at Ace of Spades, on a fashion designer using overweight models to make some sort of statement or something, show again that you can mock the overweight with impunity.

Why?  What if that radio host had said, "They let Washington get to locker room at halftime where Ty Willingham could feed them some watermelon!!!!"?  Look, I'm not trying to shame anyone or otherwise act like I'm above such things; I'm really not, though I'm try to be sensitive.  I'm not about to call anyone a "sizist."  I'm honestly curious as to the difference between remarking about a black guy loving watermelon and a fat guy loving pudding.  Both seem rooted in ridiculous stereotype and are based solely upon the outward appearance of the target.  Why is it okay to mock, persecute and discriminate against the overweight without fear of reprisal?  Maybe it has to do with the idea that, while one cannot choose to be black or female, e.g., one can choose to be thin or obese, and thin is the choice that society deems the correct one.  Hence, it is permissible to humiliate one who has made the wrong choice into making the right one.  I'm not sure I'm buying that, though.  I think, for the overwhelming majority, people make fat jokes because they can.

Former Indians Make Good

One of the pleasures of being semi-retired is that I've been able to enjoy the MLB playoffs.  It's not so much that I have a team that I'm rooting for, but I enjoy rooting against the Yankees and the Mets.  I've also been enjoying Bill Simmons's running diaries of the first four games.  Simmons repeatedly mentions all the former Red Sox involved in the playoffs, which got me noticing all of the former Cleveland Indians involved in the playoffs.  As near as I can tell, here is a list of all the former members of the Tribe whose current teams are still active in the postseason:

NY Mets:  Ricky Ledee, Julio Franco

LA Dodgers:  Kenny Lofton, Grady Little, Jeff Kent, Sandy Alomar (!), Einar Diaz, Guillermo Mota

SD Padres:  Dave Roberts, Brian Giles, Josh Bard, Russell Branyan (God, that guy was terrible with Cleveland), Alan Embree, Rudy Seanez

St. Louis Cardinals:  Ronnie Belliard, Jose Vizcaino, Ricardo Rincon

Detroit Tigers: Sean Casey, Chad Durbin

Minnesota Twins:  None, but the Twins lineup does feature Rondell White and Ruben Sierra, who have played for 12 different teams between them (16 teams total, but both have played for  Detroit, Minnesota, NYY and Oakland).  So that's something.

NY Yankees:  Jaret Wright, Ron Villone (not much Indians free-agent talent for the Yankees to overpay for, evidently)

Oakland A's:  Milton Bradley, Scott Sauerbeck, Steve Karsay.

That's 24 guys who, at one time or another, wore Chief Wahoo in the majors.  With the exception of Brian Giles and Milton Bradley, there's not a single guy on that list who I was sorry to see go.  Cleveland had Kenny Lofton, Jaret Wright, Steve Karsay and Sandy Alomar when they were good.