What I Watched

You should understand one thing about me. Fair play is my guide.

And in the interest of fair play, I also did not watch the Democratic National Convention.

Don't ask me what I think of what who said in Chicago. Unless it was replayed on the radio, I didn't hear it. I missed Kamala's surprise and Joe's curtain call, slept right through the Obama fist bump.

I'm probably missing Bill's greasy delivery as I type. I'm about as interested in what Bill has to say as I was in whatever George W said at the Republican convention a month ago.

What? He didn't speak? Tight schedule.

What I am watching instead is the Little League World Series. I won't watch 2 minutes of a Major League game, but I've absorbed more hours of 11-12 year olds battling it out than I can count on two hands.

It's the same story as the Olympics for the U.S. bracket of states.  The diversity of this country is on full display in the sport most closely tied to American traditions. Baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet, remember?

The great thing about the LLWS is you don't know anything in advance, especially the outcome. The bad thing about party conventions is neither of those things are true. You know what they're going to do, you know who's going to win.

The LLWS is about fair play. The conventions are not. All a convention is is a multi-night infomercial and pep rally.

I'm just glad the D's have gotten something to have pep for. It's hard to miss the wave that was kicked up by one guy stepping back. Trump got no bounce from his heil fest, no jump in poll numbers at all. I bet he's going to hate the bounce Kamala gets after the convention I didn't watch.

I heard about one speaker, so I looked him up later on YouTube. Steve Kerr, coach of the U.S. men's Olympic basketball team, spoke about the commitment and dedication it takes for a diverse group of people who normally compete against each other to come together, setting aside rivalry and ego, to simply win for their country.

If you don't know, Steve Kerr won 3 NBA championships as a player with the Chicago Bulls, 2 more with the San Antonia Spurs.  He coached the Golden State Warriors to 4 more. He just added a Gold Medal to his coaching resume.

What you also might not know is Coach Kerr's father was the President of American University in Beirut, Lebanon during the middle east tensions of the early 1980s.  He was assassinated by gunmen when Steve was a basketball player at University of Arizona.

Steve Kerr played in the game a night later after his mother told him the thing his dad loved more than anything was watching him play. That's dedication to service and love right there.

He doesn't mention that story in the speech, but you should watch it. He sure beats Hulk Hogan, the closest thing to an actual champion they could get at this year's Republican National Convention.