Comic Sans backlash backlash

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Gilbert, the Cavaliers’ majority owner, wrote an angry letter on the team’s website after LeBron James’s nationally televised announcement that he was leaving the team. It cited what he called James’s “cowardly betrayal” of the team and called the TV event a “narcissistic, self-promotional build-up.”

For whatever reason, all 421 words of the screed were written in the less-than-intimidating Comic Sans font. This fact is already on the Comic Sans Wikipedia page and it was all over Twitter shortly after Gilbert’s letter was published. A Tweet from Jsmooth995 decried Gilbert’s choice, saying “nobody who posts official statements in Comic Sans MS should be running an NBA team.”

– David Biderman and Emily Steel, Wall Street Journal.

I fail to see how Gilbert’s use of Comic Sans is anything other than completely and utterly hilarious. Especially now that I know, from the article, that the 48-year-old multimillionaire uses Comic Sans for all his correspondence. It’s funny, just not in the way Comic Sans is intended to be funny.

But that said, the backlash over the typeface is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. It’s a typeface. And thanks to its overuse, the font is now particularly useful for a variety of humorous pursuits. The movement to ban Comic Sans would rob future satirists the opportunity to use the font ironically. Consider this Comic Sans backlash backlash.

Hat tip to Can’t Stop the Bleeding for the link.

Dennis Eckersley’s wisdom

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One of my favorite lines to quote from anything is Dennis Eckersley’s advice to Mike Birbiglia around the 4:15 mark of this epic clip. Sometimes it’s easiest to just outright dismiss someone or some group of people rather than continue to fret about their decisions or actions. And I know of no better way to do so more effectively than with Eck’s epic, “Ehh, f*** ’em.”

So that’s really all I’ve got to say about LeBron James:

Ehh, f*** ’em.

In one fell swoop last night, LeBron defied logic multiple times. He didn’t just choose a team in an only medium-sized market where he’ll have to play alongside other stars while simultaneously disappointing a room full of children. He also somehow managed to make Kobe Bryant a sympathetic character. Who among us won’t be rooting for the Lakers if they square off with the Heat in the Finals next year?

Rooting for the Lakers. Who (outside LA, of course) could have imagined that a few weeks ago?

Or, I suppose, we could opt for the other approach, the one I’m more likely to take: We can continue not paying all that much attention to the NBA because the college game is more exciting anyway, and because the NBA is silly enough to schedule its playoffs during baseball season.

In other words: Ehh, f*** ’em.

On the brink

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The Knicks didn’t get LeBron James, but the Yankees were on the brink of obtaining Cliff Lee late last night for a package that would include top prospect Jesus Montero, the Post has learned.

Yankees GM Brian Cashman and Seattle GM Jack Zduriencik have been in constant contact over the last week, but it was only last night that the Seattle GM told Yankee officials he wanted to move quickly, possibly before the All-Star break…

In the offseason, the Yanks tried to make a deal with Philadelphia and offered Montero as the key piece. But the Phillies decided to take the Mariners’ offer instead.

– Joel Sherman, N.Y. Post.

OK, lots of stuff here. First, the requisite skepticism. Sherman’s generally not the type of baseball columnist that traffics in unfounded or sensationalized scoops, but I’ve learned to take all trade rumors with many, many grains of salt until the deal is final.

Second, if the deal really includes a package of three prospects including Montero, Mets fans should be happy their team will not match it. Like I said in the talk with John Hickey yesterday, the assessment of the Mariners’ scouting department ultimately matters more than Baseball America‘s, but BA ranked Montero No.4 overall among all prospects this offseason. Going by that ranking, the Mets would have to gut their system to beat the Yanks’ offer.

Third, and again, going only off that ranking and a few others, it’s a little bit bizarre if it’s true the Phillies opted for the Mariners’ package instead of one built around Montero in the offseason. None of the three prospects the Phils received appears to have anything like the upside of the Yanks’ mashing young catcher, and all have been pretty crummy in the Phils’ system this year. A lot can change, of course, and who knows how or why the Phillies’ preferred the guys they got to the ones they supposedly could have got, but Ruben Amaro’s administration has made a whole lot more eyebrow-raising deals than clearly good ones so far.

If Jack Zduriencik pulls this off, he should be commended, even if his Mariners have been terrible this year. A completed deal would mean he spun three underwhelming prospects for at least one awesome one, with 13 amazing starts from Cliff Lee thrown in as gravy. If Double-A second baseman David Adams is also in the deal, as Sherman has reported, then the Mariners get back at least two prospects who are, on paper at least, better than any they gave up.

Lastly, many have wondered why the Yankees should work to upgrade their rotation when they already have a lot starting pitching, much of it high-priced. The Yanks need more help in the bullpen, or maybe the outfield, they say.

Only it doesn’t work like that, and Brian Cashman seems to understand as well as any GM in baseball. Instead of targeting a specific position where his team needs an upgrade and seeking the best available player in that role, he finds the available player who will best improve his team. This trading season, it appears Lee is that.

There are many ways to win baseball games and playoff series. You can do it with a ton of offense, like the Yanks did last year, or you can do it with an unbelievable and unbelievably deep starting rotation, as the Yanks are apparently trying to do this year.

A series of reasonable points

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The optics of James’ announcing that he’s going to Miami while surrounded by local kids who may reasonably cry in grief is what people in the business call a public-relations nightmare. Consider also that an enterprising reporter is sure to find a heartbroken child to be the poster boy or girl for what will be portrayed as heartless flirtation with total innocents.

If it’s not New York, why make the announcement here when he dragged everyone to Akron for the pitches? He could have stayed there and maintained an illusion of neutrality.

– Michael Salfino, SNY.tv.

Salfino makes a series of reasonable points here arguing why LeBron James will inevitably end up with the Knicks. The location, he points out, is as close to New York as you can be without being in New York. The recent talk that he’s going to Miami? Salfino argues that it’s misdirection from James’ camp to build suspense around the announcement.

I don’t know. I’d say I don’t care, but that’s not entirely true. I will care if he comes to New York. That would be cool.

I won’t watch the thing tonight — there’s baseball on. Real sporting events should always take precedence over announcements about future sporting events, I think. I’m sure I’ll find out where LeBron’s heading within five minutes of the announcement, and I won’t have to sit through however many minutes of hype-machine nonsense before it.

But that said, I’m a little surprised by how much backlash there has been to the news that LeBron would announce his decision in this fashion, on ESPN. I mean, how’d you expect it to be? It’s entertainment. LeBron James is a professional basketball player. And yet this particular instance of showmanship and spectacle makes a mockery of the game?

C’mon. Maybe the league-wide disregard for traveling violations makes a mockery of the game, or the gambling officials do. But a player maximizing his time in the spotlight is only that.

The idea of Ted Lilly

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Matt Cerrone passes on news from Newsday’s Ken Davidoff (a worthy Twitter follow, if you’re not doing so already) that the Mets “like the idea of getting Ted Lilly.”

Moving past the requisite jokes about trade-rumor language, I like the idea of the Mets getting Ted Lilly, too. He’s no Cliff Lee, mind you, but he’s a nice pitcher with good control and a reasonable history of staying healthy. Plus he yields an absolute ton of flyballs, which hurts him in Wrigley Field but would probably play well at Citi.

The big issue, of course, is the cost. Lilly is owed about $6 million over the rest of the season, which should drive his price in prospects down a little bit. But his contract is up after 2010 and he stands to be a Type A free agent, meaning an acquiring team would have to present the Cubs with a package more enticing than the two draft picks they’ll receive if they hang onto Lilly and let him walk after the season.

I have no idea what that means. But it sounds like the price on Cliff Lee is getting steeper by the moment, and that certainly factors into any team’s pursuit of Lilly.

If getting Cliff Lee would indeed require Angel Pagan — a trade I wouldn’t make in the first place — and getting Lilly would not, then Lilly probably makes more sense for the Mets.

The difference, in terms of wins, between Pagan and his replacement in the outfield playing every day for the rest of the season is likely at least as big as the difference between Lee and Lilly. Factor in that Pagan will be under team control through 2012 and there’s really no question Lilly would be a smarter target.

That assumes a lot, though. It assumes the Mets will continue starting Pagan regularly after Carlos Beltran returns, that Pagan will continue playing this well, and that a trade for Lee will require a player of Pagan’s caliber and a trade for Lilly will not. And I don’t know if any of those things are true.

Most importantly, Ted Lilly is a proud member of Team Ted, an exclusive group. Plus his full name is Theodore Roosevelt Lilly, which is awesome.