Mike O'Connell

The end of summer yields disappointment, no doubt, yet brings forth two important beacons of encouragement (is that redundant?) as well.

They are: football… and Tony Kornheiser.

Yes, Mr. Tony has emerged from his summer holiday, yesterday launching his “new” daily podcast, available wherever podcasts are sold. The new angle of Tony’s show is that it is now podcast-only, no longer a tape-delayed version of what appeared on radio. Tony’s not on radio anymore, which may bring about the ultimate death knell for that medium. If a famously-Luddite geezer like Tony Kornheiser moves into cyberspace… terrestrial radio is kaput.

I’m happy to report The Tony Kornheiser Show podcast is hardly distinguishable from its predecessor. I suppose it makes a difference only if you lived in the Washington, D.C., area and were home between eleven and one to listen to it live. If you were listening to it via the podcast all along, there’s no difference. Same players, same guests, same roundtable discussions, same silliness masquerading as adult talk (or is it the other way around?).

The reason I love The Tony Kornheiser Show more than most programming is that it is not rushed, and the podcast format only reinforces that. There are no timetables, no deadlines, no engineer pointing to his watch. It’s like a real conversation, one that is marked only by a logical flow, not commercial breaks.

Kind of like a blog, no?

Much has been made over San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick’s decision not to stand for pregame performances of our national anthem.

Sit, stand, do cartwheels; it’s really not my place to tell someone what to do so long as it is not blatantly harmful to others. Am I generally in the habit of standing during such occasions? Of course. Do I stand as well during the infrequent times in which I find myself hearing another nation’s anthem, or some public display I do not promote? Of course. Because not doing so usually just ends up being pretty silly.

Here’s what I find useless about Colin Kaepernick’s “stand.”

1. Kaepernick is a millionaire professional athlete, not exactly the downtrodden type who’s down for the struggle. (I know, that one was easy.)

2. Kaepernick grew up with (adoptive) white parents, went to college, and recently signed a $114 million contract to play football for the next five years.

3. Kaepernick was once one of the better quarterbacks in the league, but lost his starting job last season and was in danger of not making the team this year, even before his current controversy.

4. Outside those who follow the NFL, no one knows who the hell this guy is.

5. There is no other way to say it: Kaepernick’s blackness is ambiguous at best. I swear to Jeebus I didn’t realize he was black until last week.

Bottom line: Colin Kaepernick has got to be poorer, better, famouser, or blacker for his protest to mean something.

The new darlings of the sports world are a group of 11 and 12-year-olds from Endwell, New York. They play baseball. And they are the new Little League World Series champions.

Endwell is but a pop fly from where I grew up in Binghamton, New York… home of carousels, spiedies, and (formerly) the B.C. Open. It didn’t take much to get everyone in America rooting for these boys, just a win here, a win there, and the backing of major league baseball’s commissioner, himself a native of upstate New York.

I have no connection to the team, of course, and how different is one group of kids I don’t know from another? Nothing. Yet still I felt good watching the boys from America’s “Mid-Atlantic” play South Korea in yesterday’s final.

What made it super awesome?

Everybody felt good about it.

Congrats, M-E.

Can you believe it? Back to school today? August 24? Well, I did get 10 days off in a row last January for a snowstorm.

Anyway, I’m happy that for the first time in 17 years I know where I’m going on the first day of school, and hopefully it’ll be the same place until the last day of school.

Which I’m already looking forward to.

Sunday is my sixth wedding anniversary. Six isn’t exactly a milestone but a day to celebrate nonetheless. Heck, when you’re as lucky as I am, you celebrate every day. Here’s to Mrs. O’Connell and the boy (our boy) who makes me so happy… every day.