Acosta plays ball
[BUMPED UP]
You may have noticed that so far I’ve skipped all the brouhaha about Jim Acosta of CNN and his anger at being heckled by some Trump supporters, and then having a testy exchange with Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
It’s one of those things that makes me weary, and besides everybody else is covering it. For example, here’s Ace on the first incident and here’s Bre Payton in the Federalist on the second. You can find excerpts from Sanders’ reply here.
That’s from the right side of the fence, and of course the left has a different take on it (see the Times, for example, where the coverage was actually surprisingly restrained compared to this sort of thing).
You can watch the video if you’re so inclined. Personally, I think Huckabee Sanders got the better of Acosta:
There there’s this by Andrew Klavan [hat tip: commenter “AesopFan”], about some fallout from the incidents:
“Jim Acosta has the sadz. The untalented little man who rudely shouts unimportant questions at important people while in the employ of the ninth most trusted name in news out of ten, got heckled at a Trump rally in Tampa, Florida. Sad panda. The hecklers chanted “CNN sucks,” which, okay, is true, but they were none too polite about it.
Acosta didn’t like it. He reported, “Honestly, it felt like we weren’t in America anymore.”
But, like virtually everything Acosta reports, this is just a reflection of his small-minded biases. The fact is, having a group of people scream at you and denigrate you is exactly what it feels like to be in America — if you don’t happen to be a coastal elite. It has felt this way for the last twenty years at least. Every television show you watch, every movie, every woman’s magazine, every comedian, and, yes, every news program tells you you suck. Your country sucks. Your culture sucks. Your religion and your morals suck. And you personally are one of those dumb-ass racists who clings to his Bible and talks funny.
I was going to write in response to AesopFan: “I guess Acosta’s never been to a Red Sox/Yankee game.” Heckling, screaming, par for the course; an old American tradition, not a new one.
But then I thought I’d check out “Jim Acosta and baseball”—because who knows? Maybe Acosta’s a big Yankees fan or something like that.
So I found this tweet of Acosta’s from last May, which he posted to illustrate the American cultural assimilation of an immigrant, Acosta’s father, who came here from Cuba many years ago:
This is my Cuban father. He came to the USA as a refugee at the age of 11. He “assimilated” quite well. He even enjoyed our National Pastime – baseball. This is us seeing the Cuban team playing the Orioles in Baltimore. pic.twitter.com/EuP64e1MiO
— Jim Acosta (@Acosta) May 11, 2018
There are some very funny responses, such as this one:
I appreciate the sentiment, but an old Cuban guy getting into baseball is like the worst example of "assimilation" you could've picked, lol. https://t.co/NfkOGX9Sru
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) May 11, 2018
And this:
My grandfather also seamlessly transitioned from yelling at Dominican baseball teams on a grainy television to yelling at the Mets on a grainy television.
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) May 11, 2018
Even I am well aware of the Cuban passion for baseball. It certainly does not take “assimilation” to the US for a Cuban guy to become a fan! It may even be the case that Cubans are bigger baseball fans than Americans, on the whole. In fact, Fidel Castro was a big big baseball fan, although he was not a good enough player to have been scouted in his youth as a pitcher; that rumor is false.
So what on earth is Acosta talking about? Is he completely ignorant about the history of baseball in Cuba? Or does he think we are? [emphasis mine]:
Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Cuba. It was popularized in Cuba by Nemesio Guillot, who founded the first major baseball club in the country. It became the most played sport in the country in the 1870s, before the period of American intervention.
Despite its American origin, baseball is strongly associated with Cuban nationalism, as it effectively replaced colonial Spanish sports such as bullfighting.
When given an opportunity to address fact, Acosta makes up something that suits the narrative…an empty easily rebuttable claim…a meaningless anecdote not evidence. Who here is surprised?
Enemy of the people. It sticks like glue because it’s true.
Google “trump scouted by phillies” and get a buncha hits (no pun intended). He was also scouted by the Red Sox.
As an 11 yr old refugee, Acosta’s father’s family must have fled Castro’s communist regime. Making Acosta’s embrace of America’s socialistic/Marxist left… irony writ supreme.
Unless of course, Acosta is simply in it for the fame, wealth and notoriety. In which case, FOX can lure him away from CNN if they’re willing to offer him his “30 pieces of silver”.
“So what on earth is Acosta talking about? Is he completely ignorant about the history of baseball in Cuba? Or does he think we are?”
I am not by any means a sports fan, but only a total hermit could escape knowing that Cuban players dominate baseball even in America.
Almost every thing I read about Acosta puts him on the losing side against Sanders. He never listens to her answers, talks over her, and generally makes a whiny show of himself, then wonders why he gets shredded in the conservative press.
I appreciate Sarah’s integrity in not being bullied into giving a statement she knows would be a lie.
Sorry, Jim, but some members of the press ARE the enemies of the American people.
“As an 11 yr old refugee, Acosta’s father’s family must have fled Castro’s communist regime. Making Acosta’s embrace of America’s socialistic/Marxist left… irony writ supreme.” — QED
I watched that video, which I rarely do, to see how the press refuted Trump’s description of them. They didn’t.
All Acosta has ever done as a journalist was to perform a Cathy Newman impersonation and misrepresents everything Sanders says, puts a racist spin on her every word and uses his bastardized version of what she said to attack her.
I am against any form of violence against anyone, but stop trying to refute the fact that CNN is the enemies of the people, their false reporting of hands up don’t shoot had cause 5 cops shot on live TV and a surge of cops before ambushed around the country.
Glad you brought up baseball, Neo. Ever since you remarked on the dance-like grace of baseball players, I’ve been waiting for your new site in order to post two links to baseball and dance. The first is dugout dancing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQEjswHgPaM&t=4s&ab_channel=SportingVideos
Lots of Pirates clips, but at least two of Red Sox players . . .
The second clip is from the Washington Ballet’s version of the Nutcracker Suite, with the Nats’ Racing Presidents starring in the “Russian Dance” movement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73N8S1bz42Q&ab_channel=TWBallet
(hey, the Presidents are wearing red socks . . . hope that counts!)
Hope you enjoy these . . . thought a little baseball humor would take away the bad taste of Acosta.
Frankly, I have tuned it all out. I just cannot bear the constant yapping and bickering. Nor do I see this situation headed to a happy ending. Fortunately, I have rediscovered fishing.
Having said that, I did skim the above and took note of Costa’s Cuban baseball reference, and the response. That struck a chord. Back in the post-WWII ’40s, as a kid, in Tampa, Fl, the cigar capital of North America, and home to the largest ex-pat Cuban population in the United States long before Castro, I was a baseball fan. The Tampa Smokers (cigars, get it?) played in the deep minors of the Florida International League (but we loved them)–international because the Havana Cubans were part of the league. When Havana came to town the ball park was full, and noisy. It resembled a three ring circus with everything but elephants. Costa, you are so inane. Cubans and baseball are like Americans and apple pie. Always have been. Never mind the fact that Costa’s folks presumably came here legally, just as millions have done, and many still do.
Someone will correct me if I am wrong, but, I believe we still accept more immigrants than any other country in the world.
His dad is wearing a shirt with the Cuban flag. The flag or a foreign communist country. Assimilated???
Journalists are supposed to report the news, not BE the news.
We need to unassimilate some folks.
Maybe little Acosta did not fall far from the tree.
There are “Fake News” tee shirts for sale at the “Newseum” in DC.
Hysteria ensues.
Oh Oh, the ID is not being saved now.
There are quite a few Cubans playing major league baseball right now. Seattle has one: Guillermo Heredia.
OMG – Acosta comes across as such a little cry baby!
As to baseball and dance: the pitcher’s wind-up is quite like ballet. I pitched when I was young, and it took a while to perfect my wind-up. But when I did I developed much better control. Success followed.
Great pitchers in history whom you can see on YouTube and view their perfectly balanced wind-ups include Sandy Koufax, Jim Palmer, Bob Gibson and, to see someone who might alter and vary his motion to sow confusion: Luis Tiant.
Hey Skippo, maybe the old man is just wearing the flag of his birth country when they come to town. It isn’t always about politics, sometimes it’s just beisbol.
As for the son, his public persona is an unmitigated ass, and the fact he likes baseball is of small redeeming value.
The Left have always been able to dish it out, but completely unable to take it. As Eeyore would say, ” How like them “.
Geoff Britain said it, so I need not repeat it.
Trump apparently thinks his constant friction with the press is worth keeping up, and for him perhaps it is. For me, I would treat the press as we should treat school shooters: no notoriety, as little mention as possible. Not that they’ll go away, but perhaps they’ll stop reporting on how oppressed and mistreated they are.
Acosta is much better with a music track:
https://twitter.com/BevHillsAntifa7/status/1025452071279976448
My dad served in USCG cutters Mendota,,
http://military.wikia.com/wiki/USCGC_Mendota_(WHEC-69)
and Navajo. I served in Carl Vinson, Dubuque, and Belleau Wood.
Mr. Acosta has a pic of him and his dad at a bbal game. Color me inmpresseed,
I have a pic of my dad, 17 serving in the Pacific,
Acosta reminds me of an obnoxious spoiled brat that wants something and won’t shut up until he gets it. I was waiting for him to throw himself on the floor and start kicking and screaming.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Navajo_(AT-64)
“..it was later renamed the Cherokee-class after loss of the first two ships of the class.
Navajo was laid down by the Bethlehem Shipbuilding Corporation, Staten Island, New York, on 12 December 1938….”
I’m with Ray, Acosta behaves like a juvenile.
https://www.ingentaconnect.com/contentone/cog/tcc/2018/00000018/00000001/art00005
“The Gendered Natures of Polar Bear Tourism
This article offers a critique of nature-based Arctic tourism through a gender-aware analysis of representations associated with polar bear tourism in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada. The guiding purpose of our study was to analyze how “nature” is gendered in its construction and presentation through tourism, and to what effect. Our study focused on revealing dominant gendered expectations and understandings (re)produced in the Churchill polar bear tourism promotional landscape. Drawing on a critical discourse analysis of qualitative and visual promotional texts, we show how various representations of polar bear tourism impose hegemonic gender roles onto polar bear bodies, which are emplaced within a conventionally gendered landscape. As the “Polar Bear Capital of the World,” Churchill’s wildlife viewing industry relies on the (re)creation, dissemination, and maintenance of particular meanings and natures attributed to polar bears, as well as human–polar bear relationships, for economic benefit. This gives rise to questions about how power circulates with respect to Churchill’s tourism production practices, gender being one of many axes of identity through which power operates and is interpolated. Ultimately, the article advances literature on gender-aware analyses of tourism and environment, and argues the promotion of gendered natures must be consistently questioned to create space for more equitable tourism practices. ”
I could not make tjhis up if I trred.
REDSOCKS SUCK!!!!!