This was on the USS Rock N Roll Blog Montag:
One of my favorite improv class platitudes is “be real,” because the funniest moments in all of our lives come when we’re not trying, and real life just happens.
Aspects of it are tragic, but there is a tremendous amount of comedy in last week’s early morning escapade by Delmon Young. He is a left fielder for the Detroit Tigers. Five hours after arriving in New York for a series with the Yankees, Young was arrested by the police in baffling situation outlined here.
The long and the short of it are summed up in the first two paragraphs:
Detroit Tigers left fielder Delmon Young has been arrested on a hate-crime harassment charge after police say he attacked a group of men and yelled anti-Semitic epithets.
Police say Young was standing outside of the Hilton New York, not far from Times Square. A group of about four Chicago tourists staying there was approached by a panhandler wearing a yarmulke.
The emphasis is mine – I have certainly never seen those words together and they are formidable.
There is also a pretty good post about it on Yahoo by David Brown which features the titanic line, “So, he’s got a temper. And possibly a problem with alcohol. And maybe a problem with Jewish people.”
As Brown points out, this is not Young’s first brush with indiscipline and indiscretion. He notes that the incident Friday morning occurred six years to the day of this incredible incorrigibility:
Because we know the umpire is fine, I can’t help but laugh (this might make me a bad person, but meh), and marvel at the cinematic feel. What we don’t know makes it all the more fascinating. The plate is not raised, so we can’t see if the pitch is over. We can’t hear what he says to get booted. And the fact of the bat flying in from off-camera is like something out of Duck Soup, so unexpected. (Also the commentator kills it with the closing words, “Oh boy…that’s a bad move by Delmon Young.” You said it, fella.)
Finally, another blast of online reality-based hilarity. My friend Jeff Lung, ultra-marathoner and curator of the baseball blog Red State Blue State, has catapulted into a different kind of cyber-celebrity along with his family on the Awkward Family Photos site. (It’s also very worth checking out the Couch Potato people the day before.)
There’s a lot to admire here in the photo itself, but I can’t get over the pithiness the first couple comments. “The wind didn’t stand a chance”!! And some random Norwegian gets in on the action?? Too good, too funny. Real life is so full of tragedy that comedy can’t help happening.
