We Can Separate Sports from Reality, Thank You

We try to stay away from most things political here at TheWizWit.  We're here for your sports related entertainment and don't want to alienate any of our readers who may be gun-loving Tea Party racists or freedom-hating Socialist hippies.  You're not going to see us delve too much into that realm - unless an elected official makes an ass of himself by throwing like a 13 year old girl during the ceremonial first pitch of a baseball game.  Or we feel like criticizing something Ed Rendell says about the Eagles.  Both are entirely possible.

Where was I?  Oh yeah -- President Obama recently attended a rally at Philadelphia's Vernon Park.  During the rally, an unidentified man threw a book from the crowd.  The picture above is a screen grab of the moment where you can see the book in mid-air behind Obama's head.  There was no further altercation and the Secret Service determined the man meant no harm and released him after questioning. 

Our issue comes with the last paragraph of Brett Michael Dykes post on The Upshot, a Yahoo! News Blog:

"Many originally thought that the book-hurler was acting out of anger, much like the infamous Iraqi reporter who hurled a shoe at then-President George W. Bush. But high spirits often get out of hand in Philadelphia. This, after all, is a city whose residents are famous for booing Santa Claus. By those civic standards, a streaker and a text missile in the vicinity of the president's head make for a pretty serene day."

Are you kidding me?  Did you really go there with this?  Never mind the tired example of the Santa Claus incident or the fact that sports fans of any kind are completely unrelated to this book-throwing incident.  In a matter of a few sentences, Dykes implies Philadelphians treat entertainers the same way we treat the leader of the free world.  He might as well keep going with the sensationalism and end the article with a line reading, "Philadelphians are out of control psychopaths who cannot tell the difference between sports and the real world." 

A book getting tossed toward the President could happen ANYWHERE -- not just in Philly.  Unless the guy shouted the E-A-G-L-E-S chant then hit Obama in the head with The Eagles Encyclopedia, there's absolutely no reason to lower yourself to taking a shot at the local sports fan base.  Brett Michael, comparing Philadelphia sports fans to rogue Iraqi reporters just makes you look ill-informed and petty.

The Upshot is a blog, and as a part of Yahoo! News I suppose Dykes is still entitled to make assertions and form opinions like any other blogger.  It would just make more sense for him to think twice before stretching for a correlation that ends up coming off more asinine than funny.



[BGN FanShots]