Journalist to the rescue

 I once saw a local media goober cut the line to get a selfie with Muhammad Ali.

The Greatest was in town for a Fort Wayne Komets hockey game, and also to meet with a bunch of kids with cancer. Local media was prevented from interviewing him -- his Parkinson's was quite advanced by then -- but we were invited to his suite in the arena to watch him interact with the kids.

One by one they queued up to meet the champ and pose with him for photos, as if Ali (who loved kids like no one else) were some sort of fistic Santa Claus. It was a sweet scene.

Until.

Until the aforementioned goober metaphorically shoved the cancer kids out of the way so he, too, could have his moment with Ali. The rest of us (and by "rest of us," I mean the other media goobers in attendance) were appalled. Like the world doesn't already think we're a bunch of lowlife hotdog-munching slobs?

"Thanks a lot, dip(bleep)," we said. Or at least thought.

Why do I bring this up?

Because the other night in Cleveland, a home run sailed into the stands, and a guy tried to grab it. Instead, he muffed it, and it rolled to a stop at the feet of a young girl. Who of course reached down to pick it up.

After which the guy who dropped -- a grown man, for God's sake -- leaped forward to wrestle it away from her. Stole candy from a baby, so to speak.

The home broadcast team said nothing. The broadcast team for the visiting Tampa Bay Rays, on the other hand, called the guy out on the air, as well they should have.

That wasn't the best part of this, however.

The best part was another guy named Ryan Bass took another baseball down to the where the girl and her family were sitting, and presented it to her. Then he posed for a selfie with them.

Ryan Bass is a Tampa-area TV broadcaster, podcaster and digital and print beat writer who covers the Rays for Otter PR. So score one for the hotdog-munching slobs.

Who frankly need the kudos these days, given that the current Regime and its acolytes despise the free press, verbally abuse any of its members who have the temerity to do their jobs, and banish any media from its presence who aren't bootlicks for said Regime. It's all straight out of that well-worn playbook, Tips For The Successful Autocrat.

Well, neener-neener-neener on them. This time, it was a journalist to the rescue.

Hooray for us.