the real world

san diego

mtv

tuesday nights at ten pm

being 110 years old has its advantages. one of them is i remember life before mtv.

i know for some of you thats hard to believe, but yes, such a day once existed.

they were super dull days, but we got by.

i think i went outside a lot. hard to remember.

mtv was the killer ap of cable in the early 80s. there wasnt cnn. espn & hbo were mere shells of themselves and not all that good. but mtv… fuck.

mtv kicked ass.

it still does in a strange way that has very little to do with music videos, but like, whatever.

shows like the osbournes, cribs, newlyweds: nick and jessica, jackass, punk’d, viva la bam, road rules, and their original “reality” show the real world make most of the programming on the other major networks look old and slow and dull.

there was a time that i could name all the vjs on mtv, now im not even sure they have them any more, but i can tell you everything about the first episode of the real world san diego, which oddly is exactly what mtv wants us to be doing.

it was obvious that mtv gave up on vjs when they kept renewing john norris’s contract.

the real world san diego is filled with more stereotypes than ever before.

youve got the sleepy-eyed buff motorcycle-riding chicagoian, brad, 21, who has been with his girlfriend for four years. the girls admit that hes your typical dumb fratboy but they cant keep their hands off of him, which just goes to show you one thing, america, hot chicks love big dumb guys with girlfriends.

in a typical real world moment in the first episode, brad finds himself telling his new roommates that he has an eight inch penis. immediately two of the girls (the ultrathin blonde south carolinian, cameran; and the ginormously fake tittied 22 year old bartop dancer, robin) attempt to pull down his pants playfully.

brad eludes their girly attacks and takes cameran up to a nook in the san diego marina house, which all 7 of them will share for 5 months, to call his girlfriend so that she can verify the length of his mighty sword.

it’s 4:45am pacific time, 6:45am chicago time.

annie?

hi.

hi baby. did i wake you?

mmm yeah.

im so sorry– listen though, honestly, and i dont want to pull it out, and youre thinking this is ****ing ridiculous, but everybody heres arguing about the size of their **** i know this is ridiculous, but youve got to be serious… how big am i?

he puts the phone next to cameran’s ear

eight inches.

what kind of eight? what kind of eight are we talking about?

i dont know, im not doing this.

thick. ass. eight. and you know it.

cameran gets off the couch in a fit of laughter and embarassment and falls over after taking one step and crawls away laughing, sweet ass high in the air in her tight jeans.

theres jaime a hot little korean girl, first generation american. theres a firehouse red rockabilly girl who has cystic fibrosis but still smokes cigarettes. theres a prettyboy massachusettes hunk who could very well be a jeans model for all i know.

and then theres the token black.

this year my man is a college student from the predominantly black georgia school Morehouse. hes nice. hes dull. he wears glasses and looks like a grown up Urkel.

he doesnt belong.

real world has consistently had a horrible track record of casting cool black people. there was afroguy in the second new york cast, mohammed in the frisco cast that nobody remembers cuz he was barely around the puck world, and teck from hawaii. all the others had some pretty serious issues.

jacquese will at best end up being the voice of reason for the other six who will probably have a great time among themselves, but odds are he will be bored out of his mind and completely left out like a common exchange student.

its almost like after two seasons in a row of highly sexual black men (paris, vegas) it was time for the real world to let the kids know that not every black man only wanted to bed every babe in town.

despite urkel, i have high hopes for this cast. they like to drink. theyre into each other. my chicagoian is a trip. and the ladies love walking around in their bikinis – alot.

which we all know is exactly how the world really is.

on the greg vaine rating scale, i give the first episode of the real world san diego a good good good good.

candied ginger + xtracyx + i look good

who knew defending the all-time hit king would lead to such good questions?

Q. Hey Tony,

I don’t know that much, but I heard a good question with regard to betting on your own team. If you’re constantly betting your own team, how are the bookies responding on those days you don’t bet?

Dan

Dear Dan,

I agree with you, it is a good question. Underneath the question is a statement that goes like this, “if Lefty the Bookie sees that Pete bets on the Reds monday wednesday thursday and friday, then Lefty will bet AGAINST the reds on tuesday, and perhaps give Pete a cut of the winnings.”

Problem is, bookies dont make their money betting.

Bookies make their money off the practice of Everyone betting. They get a cut of the gamble. its called the Vig. Bookies just want people to keep gambling, they couldnt care less if Pete doesnt bet on his team on a game where he doesnt have a great pitcher on the hill.

But good question anyhow.

Q. A manager is going to manage differently if he wants to win one particular game, rather than many games over the course of the week.

If Pete Rose bets on his team Monday, then uses up his entire bullpen and bench trying to get the best possible matchups, won’t that hamstring him for Tuesday’s game? A manager normally would account for the games in the future as well as the game they are managing at the time.

If Rose has $5,000 riding on Monday’s game, that’s not as apt to happen.

See the conflict?

– Sean

A. Sean i could see the conflict if we were talking about any other mlb player other than Charlie Hustle, who, must i remind you, plowed over Ray Fosse in the all-star game, an exhibition game, and virtually ended Fosse’s career.

Pete not only wants to win Mondays game, but Tuesday and Wednesdays games.

But seperately than that, arent you supposed to do everything you can to win Today’s game?

And thirdly, is there a record of Pete blowing out pitchers’ arms the way, say, Billy Martin did with the A’s in the 80s? the answer is no.

Try again

Q. Tony,

Let’s s(ay) your best gun in the pen has pitched 3 days straight and his arm is jello. The game is on the line and you say a few thousand on your team. You are the manager with that grand on the game?

Do you go ahead and blow out his rotater cuff or do you bench him.

What do you think Charlie did?

Chris

A. I think Charlie wouldnta bet on his team on the fourth day after his closer has pitched 3 days straight.

If anyone would have known NOT to bet on the Reds that day it woulda been Pete.

And, of course, anyone else who was smart enough to read the box scores that week before putting down a grand on a team whose closer has been used three days in a row.

Q. Hey Tony –

Will you be commenting on the following?

Jerry Krause, upon resigning as the Chicago Bulls’ executive vice president for basketball operations after 18 years with the organization, the last five of which were not too stellar: “The rigors and stress of the job have caused me some minor physical problems in the past few years. Those problems can be eliminated if I lessen my load for a while and concentrate on overcoming them.”

ryan

A. Hi Ryan,

I do have a comment.

Fuck Jerry Krause.

Tony

aaron has a guest columnist on his baseball blog today