Lady Gaga and Baseball

Richard is a huge baseball fan. It's a pastime he's discovered in retirement. Every morning he checks the paper to see what time the Tampa Bay Rays are playing. He plans his daily schedule around the game.

Yesterday was a dilemma, however. HBO was playing a 24 hour marathon of Lady Gaga and the Monster Ball. They filmed her show at Madison Square Garden. Lady Gaga is an amazing talent and the show is full of energy and artistic creation. Ah, but the crack of the bat is music to my ears.

Thank goodness for the squeaker (our nickname for the television remote control) and the 'last' button that allows us to go back to the previous channel. The Rays were playing the Orioles. Three up, three down. Alejandro! Flashing lights, a flowing white dress that opened and closed to the music.

"The score is 3-nothing! We missed it!" I screamed when the game came back on.

"But we would have missed all that crotch grabbing," Richard replied. "And who'd ever thought she'd play a keyboard under the hood of a car."

Back to Gaga. The volume went up. The room throbbed to the beat of the music. Costume change, back to the ball game. Great catch, Sam Fuld. Johhny Damon, line drive into center field.

"Hey let's go to the Monster Ball. C'mon Monsters!"

Pop fly!

"You are all monsters. You were born this way. You Monsters!" Gaga growled.

Sparks flew from her boobs and her crotch. I have to admit the costuming was pretty amazing. But I was getting pretty tired of being called a monster. Back to the game and the score was now 8-3. Monsters were winning.

The lights, the costumes, the sets, the infectious beat of the music is no match for a simple game of wooden bats and leather mitts. Lady Gaga is an awesome talent but I wonder what kind of monsters she's creating. Kids today want more, more, more. Every show, movie, gadget has to be more stimulating and over the top than the last. I think I'll stick with the simple excitement of running the bases and be thrilled to watch Lady Gaga mentor the final four on American Idol this week. Just like baseball, I know that Lady Gaga is in it for the long haul. When the radio on my alarm clock went of this morning, guess who was singing? Lady Gaga. And I sang along.