Thoughts on Fred White…

by Chris on May 16, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Posted In: Royals

Fred White – Photo from jcpost.com

As you have heard by now, Royals Broadcaster Fred White passed away Wednesday. I join with all Royals fans in wishing condolences to his family.

On yesterday’s Ballgame radio show, I got the chance to talk with both Greg Pryor and 1985 World Series MVP Bret Saberhagen about their stories of Fred and how he treated them not as ballplayers, but as friends.  It’s well worth a listen, you should check it out. (Show is embedded below.)

For me, however, I was only a listener.  Denny and Fred filled many of my summer evenings as I listened to their calls before going to sleep at night.  In the mid-80′s when the team was at their peak, I got my first transistor radio (with the single ear piece) just to listen to the games.

The night of Game 6 of the 85 World Series, it was Fred and Denny’s call I listened to, in Downtown Kansas City as I was getting out of church choir practice.  I listened to Fred talk about the “improbable little team doing improbable things to win” on the radio of a taxi cab that had pulled over in the shadow of the Cathedral in Downtown KC.

To me, Fred’s voice is always synonymous with rain delays, however.  For some reason, I loved listening to the coverage during rain delays.  This was when Fred usually covered scores and highlights from “around the League.” Mostly, I was driving with my Dad from here or there.  One particular night, I remember my Dad running into the grocery store when it was pouring rain outside. (This was still when you could leave your kids in the car, probably with the motor running.) I remember the swish-swosh of the windshield wipers and Fred and Denny laughing about how it’s “now raining buckets” out at Royals Stadium.  That rhythmic swish-swosh was the first thing I thought of when I heard about Fred White’s passing.  And how he would always seem to chuckle just a little bit, as if he had the funnest job in the world.

Fred White, along with Denny Matthews were my childhood. They were my summers. Fred’s voice, his chuckle, and his calming words during a rainstorm will be missed.

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And In The End…

by Chris on May 8, 2013 at 6:29 pm
Posted In: General

“And in the end / The love you take / Is equal to the love you make.” –The Beatles

This is the last day for the Fake Ned Twitter account.

The account has been converted over to @ChrisKamler, my real name.

There are a number of reasons for this, none of them relevant. But for now, I just want to say “Thank You” to all I’ve had a chance to interact with and meet over the past three years. This goofy little Twitter account started as a Trey Hillman parody account and then converted to FakeNedYost once Hillman was shown the door. From there, “Fake Ned” started to take on a life, and a voice, of his own.

His first splash on the scene was two years ago this week in an Open Letter to Kevin Kietzman right here on RamblingMorons.com – and if you read that today, it’s just as poignant as ever.

From there, Ned began contributing to a podcast called the Royalman Report and met some lifelong friends in Michael Engel, Jeff Herr and, yes, even Royalman himself, Troy Olsen.

INK CoverThen, came a weekly column in The Platte County Landmark. Then this blog began breaking news. Ned got himself on the radio where I met Jeff Logan and 1985 World Series Champ Greg Pryor. I made a few podcasts myself. And then Ned became the story a few times. The growth has been exponentially larger than I ever anticipated.

And tonight… it ends.

I want to thank all of you so much for your tweets, your retweets and your interactions over the past three years. You have been there. Every day. With your snark, your sass, your spunk and even your spam. I wouldn’t trade any of it for the world.

KamlerOnFox4@ChrisKamler now steps into the shoes vacated by Fake Ned. You’ll continue to get regular updates. You’ll continue to see me around. And you’ll continue to hear me from time to time. The major difference is that I’ll have my name behind what I say, and tweet and write. But Fake Ned ends tonight.

But Fake Ned does have one more parting lyric to leave with you… In the end, the love I take is far greater than the love we made. #InBed

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Movie Review: “42″ Educates More Than It Entertains

by Fake Ned on May 7, 2013 at 9:44 am
Posted In: Landmark Column, Movies

So, last month, I was 3 feet away from Han Solo. We were, of course, under strict orders to not mention “Indiana Jones” or “Star Wars.” So, I had to come up with something else to ask the man who famously returned an “I love you” from Princess Leia with “I know.”

Left with little else, I asked him about his new movie “42” in which he is unrecognizable as Brooklyn Dodgers General Manager Branch Rickey. “It’s an important film. It’s an incredible story about a critical step that was taken in confronting the issue of inequality. It was a moment when, ultimately we shined.” Unfortunately, I couldn’t slip any other questions about what it was like to be frozen in Carbonite, or whether the Lost Ark really melted that guy’s face.

So… Han shot first?

It is Ford’s portrayal of Rickey that I will take away from this film. His realistic portrayal with a voice filled with gravel. Rickey’s true intentions to integrate baseball and bring Negroes into the game was less than altruistic, and Ford channeled Rickey in saying that his intentions were “To make money.”

But there were some other outstanding performances in this movie. Chadwick Boseman made a realistic Robinson and his on-screen chemistry with Nicole Beharie, who played Rachel Robinson, was surprising and honest. You could really understand the special love these two had with each other, who often felt it was them against the world.

I particularly liked the performances of two smaller roles in the movie, Alan Tudyk, who steals just about every movie he’s in. He plays the racist manager of the Philadelphia Phillies, Ben Chapman. Tudyk has a pivotal scene where he shouts racial epithets at Robinson causing him to nearly break. And John C. McGinley, who you’ll recall from Scrubs and Office Space. He plays famed play-by-play man Red Barber and whose voice you hear throughout the baseball sequences in the film. He did a great job capturing the unique voice of Barber.

In summary, I’ll echo what Jarrod Dyson told me after the movie, it felt a little flat as an entertainment movie. It felt, at times, more like a History Channel movie.  That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go see it, because you should. The performances alone easily put this movie into the top 3 baseball movies and an important piece of history.

It also helps set a tone for introspection on those of us who watched it.  While Robinson’s integration into Baseball helped lead the way for the Civil Rights Amendment, you need look only to your local Facebook pages to see that there is still ignorance and racism in this world and in our community.  The next front for human rights may be in the area of sexual preference, and yet this year, we may see a “Gay Jackie Robinson” as there are growing rumors of someone coming out of the closet in the National Football League.  No matter the avenue, it’s important to recognize and honor the sacrifice of Jackie Robinson, so that no others will have to suffer the same fate.

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We Participated In History… Poorly

by Fake Ned on May 3, 2013 at 10:43 am
Posted In: Landmark Column, News and Notes

We have crossed over into the surreal.  Last month, we all watched in horror as events too impossible for a summer movie blockbuster played out on our television screens, our radios and our computers. The images were indelible and heartbreaking.

While we all had seen events such as these play out before – September 11th, Columbine, Aurora, Colorado and countless others – this one was different.

This event was more… interactive.  News delivery changed that Monday in New England. Breaking news was broken on Twitter and Reddit, and reporters were seen glued to their phones for updates. These updates were being given by embedded reporters who didn’t have Journalism degrees, but rather had Skype accounts and webcams.

Websites like Reddit and 4chan “croudsourced” efforts to find “guys with backpacks” and help determine those who murdered and maimed.

News became interactive and locally gathered and less formal.

Only… we all got it wrong.

CNN watching us... watching CNN... watching us...

CNN watching us… watching CNN… watching us…

Reddit and 4chan targeted a number of suspects that turned out not having anything to do with the bombing.  The actual bombers never showed up on their witch hunt. Noise and speculation on Twitter had multiple undetonated bombs all over Boston. During the manhunt for those killers, residents of Watertown, Mass craned webcams and cellphones out windows as firefights ran up and down their streets.  Many brought compelling video, but I couldn’t help think of the danger these folks put themselves in. For 20 seconds of video. Is that worth your life?

Boston Police repeatedly urged citizens across the globe to stop tweeting police scanner traffic which was being broadcast over websites and video feeds dedicated to listening in on police communications.  We were listening to police telling their partners which direction they were going to close in on the suspects – and it’s possible they were hearing that and adjusting their directions.

I don’t know the answer here. Reporting is being deputized down to normal Tom, Dick and Harry’s but they don’t have the benefit of double-sourcing and editor oversight that “real” reporters do.  But then again, most of the news coverage didn’t follow their own rules anyway.  Everyone will remember CNN’s giant blunder saying that a “dark-skinned” suspect had been arrested – nearly 3 days before two white kids actually were taken into custody.

If we’re all going to become reporters, we should at least do ourselves a favor and learn a little more about maintaining safety and how broadcasting raw data over a police scanner is a bad idea when it jeopardizes the lives of first responders. If we want to participate in the coverage of news, we need to get better at it.

As we now know, the way we get our news changed last Monday. And we have to get a little smarter because of it.

 

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A Funny Thing Happned On The Way To The Arch…

by Fake Ned on April 30, 2013 at 2:59 pm
Posted In: General, Landmark Column

Every year, my son and I pick one weekend to go on a “Man-cation” with the added benefit of leaving my wife alone for a weekend that she doesn’t have to cook and clean and do all of the other wonderful things that she does for us.

For my son and I, we look forward to this weekend every year as it a great opportunity to bond, eat garbage, fart and make a few memories without repercussion. This year, we decided to be tourists in the St. Louis Area, see the Arch, walk around and just goof around.

Now, anyone who knows me, knows that I am constantly tapping away on my phone and vacations are no different. This “quiet time” allows me to get caught up on articles, podcasts and just mindless Internet reading. I can catch up on a little work and still spend some great time with the kid.

But something odd happened this weekend – something shocking, really. My phone died. My lifeline to the outside world. The battery died around Saturday morning, my charger wouldn’t work. My backup charger didn’t work. It just wouldn’t turn on.

After initial panic, I decided not to spend the rest of the weekend in the fetal position and we went on with our agenda of going to the St. Louis Science Center and seeing the Gateway Arch.

537972_10151421520681925_472912947_nInitially, my surroundings were strange. I managed to make it to the Science Center without the aid of a GPS. We made it downtown by taking the subway without so much as a Foursquare Check-In.

When it was time to eat, we managed to find a nice restaurant – not by checking reviews on Yelp, but by walking around Lacledes Landing and checking out the menus outside the entrance.

And then… the most shocking thing on our vacation… the boy and I began to talk. And it wasn’t just “Did you see this video on YouTube?” It was real talking. We talked about our dreams, our challenges and our lives. He asked questions about what he was like as a baby, and what he would be like when he grew up. And I told him stories about my successes and failures in life. We talked for hours – uninterrupted.

We have gone on a number of vacations like this in the past, and we will hopefully have dozens more before he reaches whatever age that he doesn’t go on vacations with his Father any longer. But one feature that will remain will be that they will be technology-free. You cannot appreciate the silence, until that silence is filled with the right type of noise.

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