A “small” story made the rounds in the news last week. How small was it? We missed it at the time. We, who Google “NIT” and “NIT Final Four” and “What do you do after you make the first bunny ear?” every day.
The story goes that allegedly (editor’s note: this is not alleged, there is documentation of this), Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corporation won’t let any of the lawyers tasked with suing it for its various alleged crimes into events at its properties (editor’s note: there we go, that’s a more accurate usage), which include Madison Square Garden and probably some other places, I don’t know, I haven’t been on their website lately but I feel like they maybe own Radio City Music Hall. Would make sense. Some synergy there, with the whole event-spaces-in-New-York thing. What are the crimes, you ask? Well, I’m assuming it’s related to James Dolan being a butthole, but all I saw was “stockholder litigation” before I got paywalled. So I’m gonna guess securities fraud. Who knows. The bottom line is, MSGE Corp. won’t let you in if you’re in the process of suing MSGE Corp., and I have thoughts.
The first thought is: How you gonna enforce it, Jimbo? You got a list of lawyers? You gonna put lawyer guards at all the entrances and have them ask all the people entering if they’re lawyers? They won’t tell you they’re lawyers, Jim. The first law of lawyering is that you don’t tell someone you’re a lawyer. Especially if they ask you. It’s like prostitution, that way. (And in others—namely the way where you get paid for sexual favors. [Why do you think Bill Clinton and Donald Trump always have so many lawyers around them?])
The second thought is: This must be why the NIT left Madison Square Garden. The (alleged) crimes. The NIT is famously a crime-free tournament. This is why Rick Pitino’s never won it, and why Sean Miller had to wait until the tournament was over to start coaching Xavier. You commit a crime? There are other tournaments for you (one’s on famed crime network TruTV). You abide by the law? You also one of the thirty or seventy best teams in the country but not one of the 25 best and also—importantly—did you avoid conscription into the NCAA’s misdeed-fueled bacchanal? We are the place for you.
So, yeah, enjoy your crime-committing arena, James. We’ll be over here in NIT-land, where we abide by the rules our society hath adopted (please disregard this last phrase if the 2023 Final Four ends up in Philly).
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Nothing else on the notes today. We’re in Maine. On a train. The reception is bad. I’m not complaining or anything, but the reception is bad, so that’s why there’s nothing else on the notes. Why does that mean there’s nothing else on the notes? Well, when the reception’s bad, everything takes longer, and since we’re in Maine, on a train, we are clearly on our way to Portland where we will clearly acquire a rental car and then obviously drive it to Acadia National Park. You cannot blog while driving a rental car to Acadia National Park. Not in this day and age. In the next? You’ll be able to do that. It will be the next major step for global economic productivity. Bloggers everywhere will be blogging while driving rental cars to Acadia National Park. Children in malnourished parts of the world will become children in adequately nourished parts of the world when bloggers are able to blog while driving to Acadia National Park. Oh COME ON computer we were just at a station and the phone had two bars how did the hot spot not have internet access? Alright, I’m gonna go, I’m getting mad.
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Viewing schedule, today/tonight (the British Open is on, as Joe will say elsewhere, for ambience):
12:10 PM EDT: Pirates @ Marlins (MLB TV)
Daytime baseball. Catch it!
3:10 PM EDT: Padres @ Rockies (MLB TV)
Daytime baseball, but at altitude. Catch it!
7:40 PM EDT: White Sox @ Twins (MLB TV, second screen)
Joe Kelly might pitch here. I don’t know if he will, because he threw both Monday and Tuesday, but we will be ready, just in case.
8:05 PM EDT: Mets @ Cubs (MLB TV)
Please-not-in-the-face.
9:45 PM EDT: Brewers @ Giants (MLB TV)
Late-night baseball (except for those west of Amarillo, for whom this is merely night baseball). Catch it!
