R.I.P. George Carlin...and recall his tribute to baseball
Link As most of you know, comedian George Carlin died. I am a big fan of Carlin's humor. Unlike a lot of comedians, he was not a "flash in the pan" or a passing fad. He was a symbol of the tumultuous 70's. But in each subsequent decade, he continued to be one of the great comedians for succeeding generations. I remember seeing him on stage at the Paramount Theater in Austin during the late 1980s. One reason for his enduring appeal was his ability to dissect language and social customs with his humor. Carlin had one of the great all time monologues about baseball. (So, I am getting around to the subject of this web site.)
A search produced the linked web site which has Carlin's complete monologue on Baseball. The most frequently remembered part of this monologue is the way Carlin contrasts football and baseball, with his style of delivery making clear his preference for the social implications of baseball. Here are a few parts of that monologue:
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Baseball is a nineteenth-century pastoral game. |
Football is a twentieth-century technological struggle. |
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Baseball is played on a diamond, in a park. The baseball park! |
Football is played on a GRIDIRON, in a STADIUM, sometimes called SOLDIER FIELD or WAR MEMORIAL STADIUM. |
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Baseball begins in the spring, the season of new life. |
Football begins in the fall, when everything is dying. |
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In football you wear a helmet |
In baseball you wear a cap. |
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Football has hitting, clipping, spearing, piling on, personal fouls, late hitting, and unnecessary roughness. |
Baseball has the sacrifice. |
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Baseball has the seventh-inning stretch. |
Football has the two-minute warning |
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Baseball has no time limit: "We don't know when it's gonna end!" |
Football is rigidly timed, and it will end "even if we have to go to sudden death." |
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In football, the object is for the quarterback, otherwise known as the field general, to be on target with his aerial assault, riddling the defense by hitting his recievers with deadly accuracy in spite of the blitz, even if he has to use the shotgun. With short bullet passes and long bombs, he marches his troops into enemy territory, balancing this aerial assault with a sustained ground attack that punches holes in the forward wall of the enemy's defensive line. |
In baseball the object is to go home! And to be safe! "I hope I'll be safe at home!" |
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A very funny man
way ahead of his time, who also had a baseball reference in his “7 Words You Can’t Use On TV.” Something to the effect of “It ’s OK to say “balls” on TV, if you are referring to our national pastime. Johnny Bench has two balls, now that’s all right, but you can’t say that about a typical man”
It takes more than pitching to win a pennant, but not much!
by bwhite2323 on Jun 23, 2008 2:18 PM CDT 0 recs
I don't know where I stand on him
In tribute to him… today I watched a bunch of his videos on youtube(in my off time)...
I really didn’t laugh much… he has a lot of potty humor that the audience thought was hilarious that I was more like.. mmkay, whatever old guy. It’s just not my thing I guess.
Go 'Stros!
by Stros Bro on
Jun 23, 2008 6:10 PM CDT
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