Listening to “MLB This Morning” on MLB Home Plate (XM 175) this morning, the hosts discussed American Idol because Larry Bowa, former manager of the Phillies, is a huge fan of the show. The morning after each episode of American Idol, Bowa gives a recap and judgment of the performances. He was fairly accurate this week, except for completely ignoring Bo Bice’s outstanding performance. Preferring Travis Tucker’s horrible singing just because he can dance is absurd. And Mr. Tucker is a student at UVA, so no reasonable person can support him. When compared to Bo’s amamzing performance, Bowa must be deaf. So Bowa ignoring Bo is a big omission for me. But I digress.
My point is, listening to “MLB This Morning”, Bowa gave his review. The primary reason for discussing American Idol on the baseball channel, aside from needing to fill three hours of radio before spring games have started, is Nikko Smith. For anyone unaware, Nikko Smith is Ozzie Smith’s son. Ozzie Smith is the Hall of Fame shortstop for the St. Louis Cardinals. The connection matters, sort of.
In the discussion, Mark Patrick set the scenario up with Bowa to discuss Nikko Smith, asking whether or not fans eliminated Smith. Bowa said no and then talked about Nikko’s resemblance to Ozzie. (The resemblance is apparent.) Mr. Patrick finished the discussion by saying that he didn’t know much about Nikko, but on American Idol, he always performs first or eighth.
That’s a bit of a joke grenade for baseball fans, so not everyone reading this will get it, I suspect, but let me say this: that’s funny. Sitting at my desk at work, I laughed out loud. An hour later, I’m still laughing. Okay, I’m not really laughing any more, but I still smile at it. I wish I’d thought of that joke.