Monday, August 11, 2008

Max Kellerman's Monday Musings Vol XXII - Jets, Baseball and Ayin Hara

Today's Max Kellerman and Brian Kenny show featured Jet talk (who can't talk about Brett Favre?) and some interesting baseball analysis.

In talking about the Golden Brett, Max put an interesting spin on the show, discussing about how Brett came from one of the most storied franchises in history to one of the most snake bitten ones. As a long suffering Jet fan, I can't disagree with his characterization of the Jets. I recall staying at my grandmother's (she should have a refuah sheleimah) for shabbos when I was 16. Right after shabbos was over I turned on the TV and saw that the Jets had lost to the Browns in the playoffs. It was much later that I learned that my beloved Jets had blown a ten point lead in the Fourth Quarter. One of the hosts on 1050 today (my apologies as I can't remember whether it was Brian Kenny or Mike Greenberg) told a story on the air today about how his father had booked tickets to Denver in anticipation of the AFC championship game during the Cleveland game. He said that his father later threw a pillow out the window.

Speaking of Denver, Sarah & I were at a wedding during the Jets - Denver AFC championship game in 1998. I recall getting home and playing the tape and being crushed again as another opportunity to see the Jets in a Superbowl went by the wayside. Not that Sarah cared at the time.

Before getting into baseball, there was an interesting moment last week when Max's mom called in to wish him a Happy Birthday. When Brian Kenny asked Mrs. Kellerman what Max's first words were she said "mine." I have a hard time believing that, since Max is an oldest child. Also, from my limited interaction with him over four days in Barbados he did not seem the least bit selfish and generally made himself available to everyone at the resort. But moms know best...

Its also kind of cool that his birthday was August 6th. I looked up his date of birth on the Jewish calendar for 1973 and if he was born after sunset, his birthday is Tisha B'av - a day that the Gemara says will be a major Jewish holiday after Moshiach comes.

On to baseball. Max had an interesting take on the the John Maine injury. Max spun it positively saying that it was good that he was hurt now because then he would be fresh when the team needed him to be and would be 100% by mid-September.

There was more of the Yankee greatest of all time bullpen talk. Again, Brian was the voice of reason, although one of the callers got Max to take back his Edwar Ramirez being better than Frankie Rodriguez statement. Well somewhat take the statement back. Max Kellerman said today that when he previously said that Edwar was better than K-Rod it was true at the time, even if it is not right now. He finished the thought with "the Yankees will make the postseason and Edwar will be the reason they get there."

Even with the slight disclaimer on Edwar Ramirez, it was still difficult to believe that Max Kellerman had even compared Ramirez to K-Rod. Edwar Ramirez's stats are purely a function of pitching in non-pressure situations. Yes he has pitched (now) 40 games with a 1.1 WHIP and an ERA under 3.9. The problem is that when he pitches in games where the Yankees are tied or winning by three or less runs he absolutely falls apart. Over 9 and 2/3 innings he has a WHIP of 1.96, an ERA of 9.37 and he has allowed three out of four inherited runners to score. Yes, Edwar Ramirez pitches fine when there is no pressure - he's fantastic when the Yankees are getting blown out or are blowing out another team. But when the game is tied or he comes into a game where the Yankees have a small lead he pitches like he's a member of the Mets bullpen.

As always, the show had an element of Torah thought. Max Kellerman commented that Melky Cabrera never has a outfield assist when Brian Kenny is watching a Yankee game. In talking about Melky and previously about the Jets, Max (perhaps intentionally, perhaps unintentionally) made reference to a concept that we would call ayin hara - that bad things sometimes happen when people are watching and they wish that the bad things would occur. In the annual Chofetz Chaim Foundation Tisha B'av lecture, R' Paysach Krohn made reference to this concept within a discussion of jealousy (this year's theme). He mentioned how being ostentatious -- driving cars that people can't afford and buying homes that they can't pay the mortgage on have multiple negative consequences. One of them was that they cause others to be jealous and that the jealousy destroys friendships as the other individual may come to "bad mouth" or otherwise speak loshon hara about the person. Additionally, R' Krohn made reference to the concept of ayin hara - that sometimes when others are jealous they wish that bad things will happen to the "lucky one." Occasionally these bad wishes come to fruition. By not being too showy about our possessions we can avoid causing others to be jealous and hopefully diminish the spread of loshon hara.

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