JonahKeri.com

It’s another two-fer week on ESPNews. Tune in Friday at 4:10 pm ET to see me talk baseball in split-screen mode, alongside the awesomely-moustached Jerry Crasnick.

In my latest edition of Yankees Preview at YESNetwork.com, I assess the Yankees’ playoff chances, as well as those of their next two opponents, the A’s and Twins.

Also, look for a piece tomorrow in the New York Sun (nysun.com) on second-half storylines to watch for the Yankees and Mets. Also known as: Why signing Richie Sexson is as half-hearted an attempt to win as any that a team could possibly make.

It also doubles as my Link of the Day. Namely, it’s this unbelievable story about what Ichiro does to fire up his AL All-Star teammates every year. You’ll never look at Ichiro the same after this. Also, Ichiro may be the coolest baseball player ever.

In baseball-related radio news, I’ll be appearing Thursday morning at 9:25 a.m. ET on Team 990 Montreal. You can listen live at Team990.com.

I’ll also be on MLB Home Plate, XM Channel 175 for a 1:05 p.m. radio interview, on the Baseball Beat with Charley Steiner (Wilson frequently subs for Steiner, and is one of the best in the biz, always an enjoyable 10-15 minutes of radio).

Finally, here’s a podcast of my Monday radio appearance on another XM Radio show, this one hosted by my buddy Chris Liss, the Rotowire Fantasy Sports Hour.

The more people I meet in life–socially, as part of my writing jobs, and anywhere in between–the more I encounter a widespread tendency to shrug off TV, to hand-wave it away as a mindless distraction from people’s Serious daily lives. “Oh, I don’t really watch TV,” has become a kind of catchphrase, a motto that lets the questioner know that there’s no time for the mindless frivolity of television, not when there’s work/child rearing/Tai chi/journeys of self-exploration to be had, apparently every minute of the day.

I’m convinced that many of these people are lying. Well, not exactly lying. They do flick on the TV, likely for multiple hours a day. But they’re probably engaging in a kind of passive TV-watching: cooking dinner with CNN on in the background, folding laundry with the ballgame on, that kind of thing. They’re not watching TV so much as they’re near it.

I tend to approach TV differently. Like everyone else, I don’t have unlimited free time. So my philosophy is, if I’m going to use precious minutes or hours watching, I want to be fully engaged, and only watch what I want. To that end, I’ve been a huge proponent of two modern, TV-related conveniences for years: TiVo and Netflix. I’m aware that neither of these allegiances make me unique. In fact, they’re both great examples of how closely I dovetail to the lampooned targets of Stuff White People Like.

Like one of those quintessential white people, I am now going to brag about how much I like TiVo, with this statement of customer allegiance: I’ve had one since 1999, which is pretty much the stone ages of DVR technology. Not only that, but I still have the original unit from nearly a decade ago. Not only that, but after a while I grew so dissatisfied with the measly 14 hours of memory that my TiVo possessed that I packed it into a box, took it with me on a plane ride from LA to Seattle, bought a new hard drive for it, gave it over to my techie friend Derek, watched him crack open the TiVo box, attach the unit to two computers, and turn it into a Franken-Tivo, one that suddenly had 150 hours of memory, more than 10 times what it had before Derek accepted my all-you-can-eat sushi lunch for TiVo surgery offer, then flew it back with me to LA.

You can probably see what I’m getting at here. I hate having TV on just for the sake of having it on. So through the use of TiVo and Netflix (which has the added White People cachet of technically not being TV watching, since you can pop that episode of Entourage into your MacBook rather than staring at your flat screen), I’ve been able to master the medium, to a large extent. What this philosophy has done is make me a gigantic fan of a select number of shows–and a complete outsider on many others. Basically, all I watch are the shows on my TiVo season pass, the shows I choose to add to my Netflix queue and watch (a few episodes at a time), and as many sporting events as I need to stay informed in my job.

Here then, in true Facebooky, “hey, here’s the stuff I like” style, are the shows I watch/have watched (if they’re over), in no particular order–not including sports. I’ve also included the medium with which I consume/consumed each show, basically TiVo season pass or Netflix.

Current

The Daily Show (TiVo)
The Colbert Report (TiVo)
Mad Men (TiVo)
Damages (TiVo)
Rescue Me (TiVo)
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia (TiVo)
30 Rock (TiVo)
The Office (TiVo)
Robot Chicken (TiVo)
South Park (TiVo)
The Simpsons (TiVo)
Family Guy (TiVo)
24 (TiVo)
Law & Order (Tivo)
Law & Order: Criminal Intent (TiVo)
Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (TiVo)
Entourage (Netflix)
Weeds (Netflix)
Flight of the Conchords (Netflix)

No longer on air

Arrested Development (TiVo season pass)
The Wire (Netflix)
The Sopranos (Netflix)
Six Feet Under (Netflix)
Deadwood (Netflix)

Seems like a lot, don’t it? It isn’t, really, not when sliced and diced into compartments of life. Netflix shows are almost always viewed while running on a treadmill at home, a handy convergence that allows me to avoid becoming a sloth despite working from home in shorts and a T-shirt every day. The TiVo shows will often sit for weeks at a time in the box’s memory, waiting for the requisite leisure time that will allow me to view them. Not counting sports viewing, I’d say I probably average 2 hours a day of TV watching, and that’s being home all day (or almost all day), every day.

Here are some other things you might notice from this list:

–I don’t watch any reality shows. This isn’t some badge of honor or anything–I just don’t find real people compelling on TV. Actors are paid to entertain, and they do a good job of it. Rob from Natick dodging sharks in Fiji just holds no appeal for me.

–I don’t watch (insert name of “Holy crap, how could you not watch?!” show). Lost is the one that gets the most jaw drops. It’s on my future Netflix list, just haven’t gotten to it yet. From the leaked details I hear from friends, though, it may not necessarily be the kind of show I’d like.

–Most of the shows I watch air on cable. I don’t get HBO, Showtime or any other enhanced cable/satellite channels, preferring to invest my extra TV bucks in MLB Extra Innings, NFL Sunday Ticket and similar sports packages. That means all the great shows that become office water cooler talk are the ones I’m consuming later, sometimes years later (Six Feet Under being a prime example, also The Sopranos and The Wire).

The end result here is that the shows I watch, I really, really like. If I don’t like them, I chuck them from my TiVo pass list or Netflix queue and either look for a replacement or drop my list by one. As is my right as a solid citizen, then, I believe it is my privilege–no, my duty–to prosthelytize people into watching the shows that I watch.

It also makes me opinionated when it comes to something like The Emmys. Oh I won’t watch the actual Emmys awards show, since it’s not on any of my queues. But I will become indignant if the critics don’t agree with my shining beacon of a TV opinion. Which is why I was so heartened to read this Salon.com Primetime Emmys article, which pretty much backs up all of my life TV choices.

Look, I’m not saying you’re misguided/crazy/hopelessly out of touch if you’ve never felt the grip of The Wire, marveled at the comic genius of The Colbert Report or gotten sucked in by the Flight of the Conchords episode where they sing “Business Time”.

Actually, wait…that’s exactly what I’m saying. Take the time you waste gawking at shows that you don’t really want to watch but happen to be on, and apply it to one of the shows on my list (The Wire, The Colbert Report and Flight of the Conchords my top three recommendations). You won’t need to give up your Macedonian folk dancing classes to do it. You’ll just be spending your TV time more wisely.

And if you end up not liking my recommendations, I’ll buy you a beer. Which we can then consume watching Stephen Colbert explain to all of us how bears are godless killing machines.

Only in the Bush White House is birth control equated with abortion. Broadsheet has more, as does this site.

It really doesn’t get any more perfect than reproductive rights when it comes to summing up the nightmare that is the Bush presidency. You have an issue that combines the government’s inability to separate church and state with its inability to respect people’s right to privacy. This country drives me fucking crazy sometimes.

After my HotList appearance today, I recorded a 30-second clip on what to expect in tonight’s All-Star Game. I argued that while the AL has been widely regarded as the superior league for years, and continues to dominate in interleague play, it may be that AL teams are simply deeper and better constructed, but that the NL has more up-and-coming young talent (Ryan Braun, Tim Lincecum etc.) and that all that young talent might be the difference in an All-Star Game. So I picked the NL.

Unfortunately, speaking into a dead camera for 30 seconds is REALLY hard unless you have experience doing it. So apologies in advance for the ummms that will dot my attempt at analysis.

Anyway, flip on ESPNews’ PreGame show before the All-Star Game and you’ll see me struggle through. Rob Neyer simultaneously recorded his own clip, and I’m sure he knocked his out of the park.

My bad for not noting my ESPN.com Chat, which I just finished an hour ago. You can read the Chat transscript here.

Page 2 also has my annual No-Stars team up on the page (scroll down to bottom left). Barry Zito is MVP emeritus.

Also, I’ll be doing my weekly hit on ESPNews The Hot List today at 4:10 pm ET.

Finally, here’s my favorite reader email of the day, a reminder that there will always be skeptics, and not the good kind:

Adam Dunn Sucks…Anybody can strike out…Nobody wants him… Sincerely Angel Fan

Rapid-fire format, so I can get in as many links as possible.

–The New Yorker has a cartoon on the cover of its latest edition that’s causing a media firestorm as we speak. Here’s Politico’s Ben Smith’s take on the cover, which includes an image of the cover itself: Barack Obama wearing a turban, fist-bumping with a heavily-armed, Afro’d Michelle Obama, with images of a Osama Bin Laden and a burning American flag in the background. The New Yorker argues that it’s satirically lampooning some of the harshest (and most blatantly false) criticisms from far-right critics. Others, including the Obama campaign, have panned the cartoon as being in bad taste. Check it out, then feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section. I’ll reserve my opinion until later.

–It’s a shame in a way that the cartoon is garnering so much attention, because Ryan Lizza wrote a mammoth, 15,000-word feature on Obama that looks at his Chicago background coming up as a politician to get a sense for what kind of political animal he is today. Reading this article will literally take up half your day, but it’s pretty darn interesting. Despite all the hope and change rhetoric, it’s tough to see Obama as anything other than a clever politician who knows how to game the system. Which to me is fine, as long as his gaming involves, say, sensible plans for the economy, health care and Iraq, not wasting time and money pushing abstinence-only education and Intelligent Design and following some of the other horrific paths the current administration has taken.

–John McLaughlin calls Obama an “Oreo”. In related news, John McLaughlin needs to stop speaking on TV.

–Posed a very legitimate question in this YouTube clip about why health care subsidizes Viagra but not birth control, John McCain completely froze up and once again showed he’s incapable of independent thought.

–In related news, no current news item makes me angrier than the White House’s current block of a massive AIDS funding plan to Africa, pending an agreement being struck to earmark a huge chunk of the cash toward abstinence-only education. Never mind that the Bushies have been pushing this garbage for years, causing catastrophic damage by ostensibly denying condoms to AIDS-stricken nations. Favoring religious dogma over a moral imperative to save lives is as disgusting an act as any I can imagine by any government, let alone the richest, most powerful one in the world.

–Kos has an excellent take on the FISA mess.

–Digby has an even better take on the “lurching” of Obama’s politics toward the right (not in a good way).

–The vetting process for Obama’s VP choice has begun in earnest. Interesting to see candidates like Jim Webb (and possibly Hillary Clinton, if you believe the rumor mill) publicly or privately opting out of consideraton, whether due to their own skeletons in the closet, or their spouse’s. For the record, I’d like to see Kathleen Sebelius get the nod. Or Wesley Clark. Seriously.

–Now here’s political satire DONE RIGHT. I’m making this my Link of the Day, even amidst all of today’s tough competition.

–This one’s a bit older, but enjoyed the Freakonomics’ blog take on why we lie so much. Freakonomics is one of the most consistently interesting sites out there by the way. Highly recommend adding its feed to your Google reader or whatever other method you use to bookmark blogs.

–Awesome headline. Pretty interesting story too.

–In sports news, the Nationals are a disaster of a franchise. My buddy Daniel takes great delight in pointing out the shortcomings of the team that’s nominally the successor of the Expos. First there’s the Nats’ TV ratings, the worst in baseball by a gigantic margin. Then there’s the team breaking its promise to have the new stadium show a great view of the Capitol building–you get to see parking garages and a big, fat, red tent instead. The most shocking is a brewing scandal in which Nats officials are accused of skimming signing bonuses from young Dominican players, some of them still kids. Nats GM Jim Bowden refutes the story. Still, bad mojo for a team with so many strikes against it (and the worst record in baseball to boot).

–Continuing our theme of bad teams, and of my critique of them from Friday’s NL review–the Astros are screwed, and it’s only going to get worse under hapless GM Ed Wade.

–Don’t know the name Michel Inoa yet? Here’s an introduction. I’d be really excited if I was an A’s fan right now, TINSTAAP or not.

–Bye-bye Billy Packer. No one is sorry to see you go.

–My buddy Jon S. (that’s Jon S., Boston chapter, not Jon S., Montreal chapter) passes along a link to one of the weirdest Web sites I’ve ever seen. Needless to say, I love it.

–Finally, time for a very rare JonahKeri.com music recommendation (maybe the first one ever?). Five months ago, I went on a great spring training trip to Arizona with four buddies. Good times, all that. One memorable aspect of the trip, though, was being introduced to this really cool band. Seems the two band members went to Wesleyan University with my buddy Seth, where the three of them were good friends. So the band went along playing catchy music, but not making much headway at first. By the time Seth and the other guys introduced me to this band in Arizona, they were just about to strike it huge.

Today, MGMT is huge, having played Letterman and Conan, sold a jillion albums, opened for Radiohead in Manchester (I’m going to see Radiohead for the 3rd time next month, in Montreal, but I’d have killed to see an MGMT-Radiohead combo) and will be headlining a UK tour starting in November. While on the plane back from Budapest yesterday, I watched a bunch of in-flight movies, including the take-off of the great book “Bringing Down the House” called 21. So-so flick. But the opening scene, where the main character cycles through Cambridge with MGMT’s “Time to Pretend” playing in the background, was supersweet. I’m partial to “Kids”, a song that hasn’t achieved the same status on the pop charts but seems better liked by big-time MGMT fans.

I’m not a music aficionado by any means, and I’m sure the cooler kids among you were probably listening to MGMT when they were in middle school. But for those of you like me who only periodically consume new music, then latch on to 2-3 of the best new bands at a time, I think you’ll love MGMT. Buy the “Time to Pretend” EP on iTunes (it’s less than $6) and let me know what you think.

3,800 more words of midseason review/’84 Cubs flashback goodness.

Hope to have a longer post with a bunch of links later in the day Monday.

In my continued effort to make my life one big melange of business and pleasure, I banged out a 3,500-word MLB Mideason Review article for ESPN.com while in Budapest.

This is the 3rd annual edition of the Review, with each one picking a team that’s beaten expectations, then digging up the last big winner from that franchise’s history and assigning one player on that club to every team in the current season. So for instance, in Part 1 of the Review this year, I cover the National League, with Gary Matthews assigned to the Cubs, Rick Sutcliffe for the Brewers, etc.

Trust me, this will make more sense when you read it. Or at the very least, you’ll enjoy the copious references from The Simpsons and Caddyshack.

Part 2 runs on Monday, also at ESPN.com.

Milton Bradley writing for the New York Times!

I actually posted in the comments section of the article:

As a fan since Milton’s days with the Vermont Expos, through all the bad times, let me just say…kudos! Can’t wait to see one of my favorite players in the midsummer classic.

Seriously, the guy plays the game with heart and passion. Occasionally he lets his emotions get the better of him, but who among us can say that’s never happened to them?

Great insight in the column too. I hope Bradley becomes a regular “blogger” for the Times, even if this entry was much closer to a column than a blog post.