dagblog - Comments for "WILL & DISGRACE"

Only his hairdresser knows

cmaukonen — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 03:44:04 +0000

In reply to Yup... I have thought that

Only his hairdresser knows for sure.

Yup... I have thought that

trkingmomoe — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 03:45:45 +0000

In reply to Good teaser title, Dick. I

Yup... I have thought that several times about his hair on Sunday morning talk shows. My ears turn off when he starts to talk but the color of his hair at his age gets me thinking "Is that Clairol or Just For Men."

hahahahahahah Ahhhhhhhhhh

Richard Day — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:05:26 +0000

In reply to I thought he'd run out of

hahahahahahah

Ahhhhhhhhhh another day and I hereby render unto Anonymous PS the Dayly Line of the Day Award for this here Dagblog Site, given to all of him from all of me.

hahahahahah

GLUE FARM?

I thought he'd run out of

AnonymousPS — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:02:24 +0000

In reply to Yeah I was thinking that too!

I thought he'd run out of things to blame on liberals when, as luck would have it, he could blame college football on them, too.

Although I was entertained, I'm sure he's serious, which shows how hard up he really is.

As you said, he gets away with complex sentence structures and erudite references--erudite, but not necessarily correct.

Time for the glue farm for him!

Prohibition might have been

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 21:10:01 +0000

In reply to Not that I am pleased about

Prohibition might have been an alternative to regulation, but I don't think Will is criticizing the Progressives for not banning football.

And the assumption that college football would have withered away without federally-inspired regulation is unfounded. It was rapidly gaining popularity without any help from the NCAA.

PS Slugfest boxing went away the same way no-padding football went away--because of regulation. The sport of boxing obviously did not go away.

Dunno. The book doesn't talk

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:56:59 +0000

In reply to So what's the story on Army

Dunno. The book doesn't talk much about it.

I didn't know it either until

Michael Wolraich — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:53:43 +0000

In reply to Now this is more than just an

I didn't know it either until I read your post and clicked through to the book, so thank you.

Good teaser title, Dick. I

The Decider — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 05:03:16 +0000

In reply to WILL & DISGRACE

Good teaser title, Dick. I read this cause I like the TV show, but I don't even try to understand you or George Will. He's gotta be coloring that hair.

Yeah I was thinking that too!

Richard Day — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 03:42:10 +0000

In reply to When I read this column I

Yeah I was thinking that too! Forty years is a long time to pretend you actually know something.

hahahahahah

When I read this column I

AnonymousPS — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 01:46:21 +0000

In reply to WILL & DISGRACE

When I read this column I thought Will had finally gone around the bend, blending his love of baseball and hatred of football with his love of conservatism and hatred of progressivism.

What more self-serving trick can there be than to tie together two hatreds with one neat bow whilst gilding one's two greatest loves at the same time?

But still, I thought it was an intriguing thesis and seemed to be based on this book of some merit. (Genghis offers an important corrective to Will's predictably one-sided view of the thesis.)

He draws a fun parallel between the soul-deadening "specialization" required by the old industrial machine in which "the individual" was reduced to a cog in the factory installing cogs, over and over and over again, on a car...and the specialization on a football team.

Tackles, guards, kickers, QB...offensive and defensive players... all have their own special roles and can kinda sorta be thought of as cogs in the machine called a football machine that's run by the coach and ultimately the owner. Being a "team player" is an important value in a sport where it hurts one's team to be TOO much of an individual and step outside the lines of one's job.

(Of course, once the play starts, the best laid plans can quickly go awry and you need guys who can react to what's happening and do what needs to be done in the moment regardless of what they were "supposed" to do in the play. A kicker isn't really supposed to block and tackle, but the best ones do when it's called for, and they are rewarded for it.)

But the fact is, there's specialization on a baseball team, too, George. The pitcher, catcher, first base, designated hitter. They have special, non-transferrable skills. They aren't yeoman farmers. Maybe outfielders are fungible; don't know. And what is a triple play other than finely tuned teamwork? Or a catcher throwing a guy out at second? Or the outfield coming in to back up the infielders?

Will's thesis falls apart pretty quickly when you think about it. But then again, it's pretty hard to come up with a column several times a weak for 30 or 40 years, no?