As the Trump era begins to wind down in America, there’s still plenty of embarrassment available for everyone involved, as was shown Saturday morning when the outgoing president tweeted that his team would be holding a press conference at the Four Seasons in Philadelphia.
Only, it wasn’t the hotel, as the hotel itself was quick to note — the press conference was at Four Seasons Total Landscaping,
And because the Internet is the Internet, by Saturday night, a Four Seasons Total Landscaping T-shirt was available for purchase (not from Four Seasons Total Landscaping itself), featuring Gritty driving a tractor.
These things do happen, even in sports. In 2001, the White Sox traded James Baldwin, himself not the most famous man by that name, to the Dodgers for Jeff Barry, Gary Majewski, and Onan Masaoka. The problem was, Chicago didn’t want Jeff Barry, but meant to trade for Jonathan Berry.
“There was a misunderstanding on reports,” White Sox general manager Ken Williams said then. “We were looking at a report on the pitcher and we didn’t have one on the guy we got. We’ll honor the deal.”
Berry was a pitching prospect who never wound up getting above A-ball. Barry, an outfielder, had already been in the major leagues, in 1995 with the Mets, then in 1998 and 1999 with the Rockies. It wasn’t his first time being involved in a confusing name trade, either: in 1995, the Mets sent Barry to the Padres for Pedro Martinez, the lefty reliever. They meant to do that, at least.
Those baseball trades all happened. In the NBA two years ago, a three-way deal between the Wizards, Grizzlies, and Suns fell apart because of confusion over whether Dillon Brooks or MarShon Brooks was supposed to be on the move. It wound up just becoming a Washington-Phoenix deal, Trevor Ariza for Kelly Oubre and Austin Rivers, with nobody named Brooks involved at all.
None of that sports stuff went down in such a choice location, though. Where, exactly?
The Nationals already have invited Joe Biden to throw out the ceremonial first pitch on opening day in 2021… whenever that is.
Instead of Trump, this year’s first pitch of course was thrown out by Dr. Anthony Fauci, while Trump lied about being invited to throw a pitch at a Yankees-Red Sox game.
College football on Saturday was just an extension of the political world: Georgia, yet again, proving to be a red mirage.
Rutgers got predictably hammered by Ohio State, but after last week’s lateral-fest that didn’t count, this time around their sideways aerial display was all good.