Stand Up To Cancer - World Series

[Blarg]

25 minutes ago, Taylor said:

The ice bucket challenge was lame. Just a bunch of kids trying to look all activist-y on social media without really caring about ALS.

 

Yeah, you're probably right.

 

 

 

[yk9001]

59 minutes ago, Taylor said:

Leave it to yk to complain about a tribute for cancer victims.

 

Yeah, we're lacking in tributes.

[Vladfan]

39 minutes ago, Angel Oracle said:

My dad died from a stroke, likely brought on by losing both kidneys to cancer.   R.I.P. Dad.

Sorry for your loss, Vladfan!

Thanks AO.

Sorry to hear about your Dad also.

[Stradling]

This is the perfect @yk9001 post/thread.  Like mt I don't often agree with yk, but I love the fact that he shares his opinions like this even though it is heartless.  

This is one is near and dear to my heart.  I like to be moved emotionally and watching tributes like this do move me. I like when the players use the pink bats and anything that sheds light on cancer.   I don't have a problem with them trying to promote something like this to raise more money by hitting a large target audience, it is tough for me to be upset about it.   I have lost both parents and a brother to cancer, so I love anything that will promote raising money for cancer research.  

All that being said, I totally get the "wanting to escape reality" opinions, it makes total sense to me.  I just don't happen to be one of those people.  To be honest I am almost the opposite.  Because life is so busy raising a family, the work I do or the hours I put in, that I have gone a day or two at a time without thinking about my mom or my brother, and seeing stuff like this is just a slight nudge to put them at the forefront of my mind and to remember the good times.  

[Junkballer]

I'm generally against anthropomorphising diseases and I don't care for the whole "survivor", "fighter" terminology bandied about.  Not being purposefully insensitive as I lost my mom to cancer after 4 years of treatment, surgeries, remission and recurrence.  Still, I don't care for the emotional manipulation involved in using catchphrases that turn cancer into a physical entity that one "stands up to".  

[Stradling]

Emotional manipulation?  Ok.  I kind of thought it was less about trying to manipulate you and more about raising awareness to a large audience to try and raise money so other people may not lose their mom.  

[yk9001]

Strad, I understand that I am off the scale low on the sympathy/compassion level, but ALL this shit strikes me completely and utterly disingenuous.  The fact that there is a Master Card logo cements my point.

Again, its just me, but I would be embarrassed to hold up a sign like that.  TO ME (and I realize I am in the minority), it strikes of "LOOK AT ME! I'VE HAD TRAGEDY! CAN I HAVE SOME SYMPATHY? PLEASE?"

[Junkballer]

33 minutes ago, Stradling said:

Emotional manipulation?  Ok.  I kind of thought it was less about trying to manipulate you and more about raising awareness to a large audience to try and raise money so other people may not lose their mom.  

I'm for raising awareness and the advancement of treatment and don't mean to criticize the entire effort but that particular element of choosing the slogan falls short for me.  It is nitpicking, sure, and if this thread had an actual effect on future cancer awareness campaigns I would hold my tongue.  Yet, there is only one reason to anthropomorphize a disease and that is to manipulate the heartstrings.   Perhaps I'm the odd one but I listen carefully to what any advertisement says and implies and I don't particularly care for the tone of the slogan and the wording that dovetails into the new idiom of "cancer is war".  

[Stradling]

To each his own I guess, but simply put slogans work.  What you call manipulating the heart strings, I would say most others would call bringing attention.  How the hell do you even talk about cancer without eliciting an emotional response?  I guess it would be something like, "Cancer is bad, send money if you don't like bad things".  

[Stradling]

Oh and if you have ever seen the affects of cancer and I am sure you have based on your post earlier, then how can you not correlate someone battling the disease to a war, it is incredibly appropriate.  

[Junkballer]

Well, it is phrased as a command as opposed to an invitation to stand beside. I have no professional insight as to the effectiveness of that as a tactic but I thought it was noticeable. IMO, a March of Dimes slogan like "We're helping babies" elicits a different natural response because it points to something good they are doing and implies invitation to come along. "Stand up to" seems like a different connotation. I'm naturally inclined to be sympathetic to cancer related causes because of my personal experience but if that were not so the phrasing might feel like social pressure to do something that I would perhaps be more likely to do were it were an invitation. Metaphors are useful when a subject is not understood. I think the phenomenon of cancer is pretty well understood. I don't find it useful to correlate my mother's illness to a war however, we all think and respond differently and I certainly sympathize with the need to make sense of something that seems so senseless.

[Chuck]

I didn't and don't mind it. 

My mom has terminal cancer so any awareness on prime time to resolving this deadly disease is a good thing. 

I missed the entire postseason because I was visiting my mom for two weeks by her bedside. I guess there are some things more important and honestly, at least right now, baseball doesn't even enter my thoughts. 

Maybe a fun & productive offseason will change the way I feel and be a much needed distraction, but I cut the cord on baseball after the Angels season ended..

and yes @tdawg87, I'm a blast at parties right now.

[tdawg87]

Dude I can't imagine what you're going through. My mom has had her health issues but nothing long term like that.

Cancer is the Josh Hamilton of diseases. You spend tons of money on it and continue spending money on it once it goes away. Meanwhile it just sits there soaking up money and snorting coke. Also it kills people.

[Chuck]

Just now, tdawg87 said:

Dude I can't imagine what you're going through. My mom has had her health issues but nothing long term like that.

Cancer is the Josh Hamilton of diseases. You spend tons of money on it and continue spending money on it once it goes away. Meanwhile it just sits there soaking up money and snorting coke. Also it kills people.

Thanks dude.

It boggles my mind that we still don't have a cure for this shit either. 

[tdawg87]

As long as she keeps fighting she'll beat it. The human spirit is a vastly underrated defense mechanism. 

[Blarg]

I'm sure they mulled over "Sit on Your Ass for Cancer" but realized that Congress has a monopoly on that.

[Vladfan]

I guess this is how I look at it.

The tribute was a way to show that everyone knows someone that is affected by this terrible disease. Some know multiple people. When you put it on that grand of a stage.......people stop and reflect and say.....oh man, I know someone who is going through it now or has suffered the worst case scenario.

My wife was 42 years young when she passed from one of the rarest cancers a female can get. The problem was there was not enough data and research on her type of cancer to get a proper path of treatment. Basically it was a shot in the dark that she would survive......and she didn't

If Stand up to Cancer can bring awareness and raise money to get the research for other cancers........Put it on TV all day long!!

Another thing......I don't care for October being "Breast Cancer Awareness Month". Make ALL cancer awareness month. I'm all for breast cancer awareness but it isn't the only cancer out there that need funds, research and awareness.

[yk9001]

For the record in about an hour, I leave work and go up to take my mom to see her oncologist where we find out how long she has to live.  She has secondary lesions on her L3 spinal cord, and breast cancer.  She lost control of her bowels and urinary last week because the cancer attacking her spine breaks the synapses between the brain and the bowel and bladder.  When we got out her out the hospital last week, she just wanted a drink, (shot and a half of Jim Beam with diet 7up) and her cigarettes, and to watch the world series game.  She's 82 and wants to be in heaven with my dad, so I doubt she's going to go for chemo. 
So I know cancer.  The signs in the middle of the world series don't do anything for me.

[yk9001]

I did the math.  My mom has smoked since she was 20.  A pack a day (very conservative figure) for 62 years.  I think I calculated 452,600.  Its a fucking miracle I haven't coughed up a lung from the secondhand smoke.  My dad's smoking made my mom's pack a day look like a piker.

[ScottT]

Count me in as one that grows a bit tired of the constant honoring, remembering, and raising awareness.   Sometimes, I just want to watch a game.

[ScottT]

3 hours ago, yk9001 said:

Strad, I understand that I am off the scale low on the sympathy/compassion level, but ALL this shit strikes me completely and utterly disingenuous.  The fact that there is a Master Card logo cements my point.

Great point about the logo.

The NFL doesn't push the color pink for a month every year just because they care about breast cancer.   They also care about connecting with women.  I'm sure they've generated more revenue from that audience since the campaign started.

[nate]

This post combined with yk's macho post making fun of female athletes is pretty pathetic.

[Angel Oracle]

I do wish there was a better way for sponsors to not soil sign recognition, and still be sponsors.

It's kind of like putting "Chico's Bail Bonds" on baseball unis.

[Junkballer]

3 hours ago, Blarg said:

I'm sure they mulled over "Sit on Your Ass for Cancer" but realized that Congress has a monopoly on that.

I think the prostate cancer folks are considering that and "Give Cancer the Finger".  Running neck and neck.

[yk9001]

The NFL is finally putting an end to mandatory Pinktober.

 

http://www.foxsports.com/nfl/story/nfl-crucial-catch-breast-cancer-awareness-charity-2017-121316