Did anyone else see Conan O'Brien last night? I'm not normally a late night talk show guy. Back in high school/college I used to watch Letterman off-and-on, and I actually watched the first few seasons of Conan pretty regularly. I didn't fall out with it or anything, it just is no longer part of my life. But last night I was flipping through the channels, and well, I finally had something to blog about this morning...

 

Like I said, I just happened upon the show -- I was bored and thought "Hey, I wonder what Conan's new show is like." I had no idea who the guests were supposed to be. Will Arnett was his usual entertaining self. The voice makes it all work, of course. His air guitar version of the Law and Order theme was tremendous.

 

I flipped back-and-forth, then came back to Joe Torre. (Wow... The Yankee Years is just out [TucsonRoyal's review]? It seems like we've already discussed and been finished with that for a while...) I'm not sure how much Conan follows baseball, but did a credible job of hitting the usual points with Torre: New York Boston Jeter respect Rivera Manny bullpen best record thanks we'll be right back...

WITH SPINAL TAP.

I was hooked in. I didn't know the Tap had something new out, but hey, if I hear that they're up, I'm going to stick around and listen. They played "Heavy Duty," which I guess they put on the new album, too. They still have their "chops." I was particularly impressed that David St. Hubbins could stil hit all the notes in tune and sustain them (from what I could hear with the TV turned down). I was a bit disappointed not to see the (seriously) cool bevy of Gibson Les Pauls, SGs, and Flying Vs they had in the original movie, but I guess it was appropriate that they were trying to be "hip" with new axes. St. Hubbins seemed to have the predictable Paul Reed Smith, while Nigel Tufnel might have been a bit cooler (in my mind) with what looked like an  Ernie Ball Music Man -- I think it was one of the cool 25th anniversary models. They also sat down for a short and entertaining interview with Conan -- their new CD has a (difficult-to-assemble) diorama inside!

Anyway, we aren't here to discuss one of Great Britain's loudest bands. What really struck me with reference to baseball (ahem) was the "end shot," where everyone is on the couch and Conan thanks the guests as they play out. It was just such a hilarious picture -- five dudes on a couch. To me, this was the (inadvertently) funniest part of the show -- seeing Joe Torre crammed between Gob Bluth and Derek Smalls. He looked so, well, confused. It got even worse for him when Derek Smalls put his fist in the air (as he is wont to do) -- Torre didn't appear to know whether he was about to get punched, and then, trying to be cool, I think he might have tried to "fist-bump" Smalls (maybe this was Arnett). I wish I had a video capture, maybe it's not as awesome as I remember, but it was pretty funny.

So what does this have to do with baseball? Just this: Joe Torre looked seriously out of place. I mean, who can blame him. Do you think he'd ever even heard of Spinal Tap before last night (the original movie came out in 1984)? I seriously doubt it. I'd also be surprised if he has any idea who Will Arnett is, or had watched an episode of Arrested Development all the way through. That's fine. He's an older guy, so no big deal. But really, does he seem all that different than any other baseball manager? Sure, he's older than most, but as I thought about it, in general, don't baseball managers generally seem like a pretty "out of it" crowd? I'm not saying I'm the Archduke of Hipness, but they just seem... so... I dunno. Maybe it's that they hilariously have to wear uniforms (I wish basketball coaches had to do this.) But Torre just seemed clueless. Maybe some think Joe Maddon (he's got those hip glasses!) or Jerry Manuel (he'll cut you!) or Tony LaRussa (he has a mullet!) would have do better, but somehow I doubt it.

Yet a lot of these guys (especially Torre) still get reputations as leaders of a bunch of guys in their twenties and thirties, and are known for their people skills. I'm not saying that watching "hip" comedies or whatever will help with that. Baseball players in general don't strike me as particularly clever when it comes to humor or whatever, and that's probably not the level that managers need to handle their players on.

Still, seeing Torre confused on the couch like that was quite striking. Did he even know that the Tap is an "act?" Thank goodness Arnett didn't scream "with club sauce!" out of nowhere... they would have had to bring in the EMTs right there. It was a moment of truly spontaneous comedy gold.