The 2021 Grandstand New Year has arrived! The mountain man, Rafaga De Palmer, and pride and joy of Grossmont High, Lil Mo, joined us to usher in the most wonderful time of the sporting season. Celebrating the first Saturday of May we reflect on the pandemic sporting year without the most valuable player in the game - the fans - and discuss everything from horse racing to quilts, Padres baseball, digital fandom and much more! 

Ralph Fugate; Breahitt County, KY

Fernando Tatis Jr., a prophet brought to San Diego by the baseball gods, recently sparked controversy when hitting a grand slam in a manner that violated one of the many “unwritten rules” of America’s national pastime. While the remaining purists continue to insist the unwritten rules provide important guidelines for how to play the game the “right way”, the majority of grandstanders in the sports world have made it loud and clear they find these codes irrational and antiquated. 

On this episode of Grandstand Podcast we talk unwritten rules, their absurdity as well as their social value. Whether it be within the sport of baseball or the cultural groups that raise us there are these implicit codes that serve as our tribal shibboleths traditionally passed down over generations. But even after those codes become deeply ingrained within the cultural DNA of a group their value and importance will inevitably become questioned. Are baseball’s codes really about having respect for the game or is that a guise to protect the fragile ego of one player - the pitcher? In today’s American society where one is an individual first, before a member of a collective whole, is baseball ready to just “let the kids play”, strive for individual success and discard the virtues of restraint, respect and humility toward others? Similarly, beyond the diamond, after a long day of hard work are we ready to stop giving up our seat on the bus to entitled old ladies? What would Jesus do? Or does the Grandstand not care anymore?  

Earlier this week on a humid summer day on Broadway Street in New York City two drivers had a near collision, then got out of their vehicles and screamed at each other over who retrospectively would have been at fault. Meanwhile, as they fought in the middle of the street everyone else sharing the street wanted them to move on and clear up the mass traffic they were inconveniently causing. After all, they both were partially at fault. They finally decided to swallow their pride get back in their cars and clear up the road, but on the sidewalk another altercation was now taking place. A gentleman publicly shamed another gentleman who was not wearing a face mask. The person not wearing the mask angrily yelled back “I put my faith in God, not white scientists, and God doesn’t tell us to wear a mask!” They yelled back and forth for about a minute without coming to an agreement and parted ways angrily. The shamer was right - experts have found that not wearing a mask can pose a public health risk for the community. Yet, the anti masker was unequivocally right as well - nowhere in the Vedas, the Torah, the Holy Bible, the Quran or even the Book of Mormon does the creator of all existence instruct wearing face masks during a Covid-19 pandemic. So both were indeed correct! These incidents raise the question, can cranky sweaty men competing over truth come to agreement that perhaps both are wrong or maybe both are right? Or must there be a winner and a loser?

When the grandstanders sitting behind right field in Wrigley Field yell “left field sucks!” and the right field grandstanders yell back “right field sucks!” are they not including center field because center field doesn’t suck or because center field sucks so much it’s not even worth including in their battle? On this episode of Grandstand Podcast the Pontificator and Professor continue the Corona Series thinking through these questions while talking face masks, social distancing, the culture wars and sports. It’s a very amicable conversation filled with compromise and understanding. 

Back at it from the safety of our homes with more from the ushers! On this episode of Grandstand we’re joined by our political correspondent, Dan One Time Tex, coming down from space and dropping in on us live from Geneva, Switzerland; and from Chiraq, Illinois, Grandstand’s very own artist, lover and preservationist of the human experience, Skitch Bourbon comes in with sirens blazing. We discuss the current pandemic’s implications on interaction, surveillance, and our willingness to reimagine what it means to spectate the sporting spectacle. Perhaps we’re realizing what Michel Foucault meant when he said “Our society is not one of spectacle, but of surveillance” and maybe Chi-Town legends Skitch and Harry Caray can help us understand that. So grab your toilet paper and wipe up for another quarantined episode from the Grandstand! 

Not even being quarantined can ever stop grandstanders from chirping away! Thanks to the beauty of skype and technology, Grandstand’s very own ushers, Rafaga De Palmer and Lil Tio Moy report to duty to discuss the Covid-19. The gang talks about their local experiences in the past couple of weeks, predict what implications this pandemic will have on this year’s world of sports, fear how dirty America’s butt will become when all the toilet paper runs out and much much more!

Grandstand is back and this time we’re going for the win…by any means necessary! On this episode the Pontificator and Professor discuss what has been the spiciest talk of the town in the sports world - The 2017 cheating, albeit winning, Houston Astros. How much does the cheating scandal in baseball reflect the larger ethos driving our everyday lives beyond the game? What can modest fishermen, Pac Man, Max Weber and Vince McMahon teach Major League Baseball and society about the problem our game finds itself plagued in? As Grandstanders always do, we meander through these questions and more as we try to make sense of this sexy mess that we’ve caged ourselves in. 

Grandstand is back to kick off the beginning of the grandstanding sporting season, the first weekend of May. After the controversial ending of the Kentucky Derby in which the official winner was not determined by the horse who actually crossed the finish line first, but rather by a review of the replay video, this sparks a discussion on the effort of sports to establish absolute fairness. While a noble pursuit, can the progressive effort toward perfecting fairness come at the sacrifice of certain elements of the grandstanding experience that are worth conserving? With technology comes change, and with change comes the type of ranting and raving that is essential in the grandstand. Joined by Rafaga de Palmer, we spit ball around thoughts about the reliance on instant replay review, and whether it is a sign that the world is becoming one big patty cake factory of snowflakes.

And just like that we are back! For this grand return we get knee deep into talk of long distance love affairs, forgiveness and return. Is it really possible to keep love alive at a distance as is the case for the Charger fans left behind in San Diego?  We attempt to make amends with the enigmatic faithfulness of grandstanders who have zero qualms or bitterness towards the Chargers despite the classless manner in which they handled their move to L.A. We dig into the complications of forgiveness and letting go in the name of love.  Are the Los Angeles Chargers of Carson formerly known as the San Diego Super Chargers all grown up? Was their move to the big city the necessary catalyst that put their future successes in motion? Should we not be proud of them on some level? What to do, what to feel, how to process a possible Super Bowl win?  Will some of those diehard haters ever return and are they justified in not ever doing so? All this and more within the context of the challenges of long distance love, conjugal bedrooms, and even a little hanky panky!  

On this episode of Grandstand the Pontificator and Professor are re-joined by the ushers to have a war of perspectives and philosophize over "what is?" and "why?". Calling in from Geneva, Switzerland, Dan-1x-Tex relentlessly bombards the conversation from a place of tribally detached objective reason, while Rafaga De Palmer comes in barefoot, pantless and angry from a WiFi accessible mountain in Big Sur, CA to defend the validity of emotion within the sporting discourse. For almost two hours the gang kicks around opinions regarding the end of this year's World Cup - does the WC even matter after Mexico is no longer in it? Is it just plain foolish to imagine the idea of the Green Team ever winning a WC in our lifetime? Why have we still not seen them play that ever elusive 5th game? The boys are back in town to theorize, ramble, argue and predict as we try to cope and make sense of why our beloved team on the field can't perform as well as their wishful fans in the stands.

Episode Note: This was recorded before the semi finals of the tournament.

We’re back in the Grandstand, and there’s no better time to kick off season 4 than alongside the opening game of the grandest of all spectating spectacles - the Fifa World Cup!!! Considering the history and potential future of nation state divisions, we discuss the relevance of the World Cup in a corporate saturated, neoliberal, globalized time. Beyond being a tournament that determines which group of guys play the best futbol, is the World Cup simply just an experience in nationalist expression? In a time when adherence to a national identity is becoming perceived as antiquated, we talk about the type of “carnival nationalism” that the World Cup provides to give people a sense of place and belonging in our global village.