Well, not me. I loved Mark Grace’s interview with Justin Timberlake during the All-Star Game last night. It may have been more entertaining than the game, actually.
The MLBAM people have already had the video of it taken down from YouTube — and I have this feeling that neither Fox nor MLB.com will be featuring it at their websites today — but you can get a full transcript over at Amazin’ Avenue. (UPDATE II: I was wrong! It’s at MLB.com. Apologies for suggesting that they’d Pravda-it out of history).
Everyone is talking about how Timberlake — be it sarcastically or drunkenly or both — “praised” Joe Buck’s announcing abilities multiple times. But whether or not that was really a slam on Buck, I don’t think that was even the most awkward part of it. No, I found the most awkward part of it was JT’s ode to beer and his praising of it as “the perfect food.”
Mark Grace: It’s a pretty good spot. Now you wanted ballpark food. Peanuts, popcorn, hot dogs, which one’s your favorite?
Justin Timberlake: My favorite? Just beer.
Mark Grace: Really? Beer! It’s kind of the perfect food.
Justin Timberlake: It goes with the hot dog, it goes with nachos, it goes with peanuts. Beer’s perfect. Beer never got mad at me because I didn’t call beer back.
Mark Grace: That’s a very good point. That is a very good point.
He said this, remember, to Mark Grace, who was busted for a DUI a month ago. And on a broadcast which, about ten minutes before, had recounted the untimely death of Nick Adenhart at the hands of a drunk driver. Of course, given that the very first pitch of the game was sponsored by Budweiser, I guess mixed-messages involved with the relationship between alcohol and baseball are something with which Fox and MLB aren’t too uncomfortable.
I did feel kind of bad for Grace, though, whose lawyer probably doesn’t need him yukking it up with pop stars about the glories of beer at the moment.
