Who's Doing The Giving Back?

I'm an American Idol fan. I'm in front of the tube every Tuesday and Wednesday night once the competition gets underway (I am tired of the full month of auditions and watch very little until Hollywood week).
Last night was the 2nd annual Idol Gives Back, a fund-raising effort for a variety of worthy causes. I applaud fund-raisers in general and know there is no shortage of worthy causes. I do, however, have a bone to pick over this: who exactly is doing the giving?
The answer is apparently everybody but the people behind American Idol. If you read the mission statement of the Idol Gives Back Foundation, you'll read in their "How We Do It" section that "Idol Gives Back Foundation harnesses American Idol's ability to capture America's hearts and the power of entertainment to benefit some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in the world." In other words, they put on a show and get other people to give. They don't do most of the actual giving.
Even when they talk about proceeds from downloading the performances on the show, Ryan Secrest was sure to say "net proceeds." Translation: Everybody gets paid first: the recording artists who performed, iTunes, the TV network, etc.
Again, I know the producers are giving the profits from these downloads (if any). But I'm willing to lay odds that the extra money they make from the increased advertising revenue on the show more than makes up for the amount they give up. Meanwhile, it's we, the viewers, who are giving altruistically.
Maybe I'm quibbling, but I have a problem with the way media entities quantify the value of their entertainment charity. Clear Channel Entertainment, the largest radio conglomerate in the country, brags about how much they've given in charity. On closer inspection, though, one part of that "giving" is the amount of time they make available for public service announcements on their airwaves- no money changes hands. The other big part of their "giving" is the fundraisers their stations organized. Admirable? Certainly. But again, those are direct donations from you and me. But did they give any actual money themselves? They don't make that very clear.
If a corporation is giving back, let them tell us how much they're kicking in themselves. If it's the user of their product that's doing the bulk of the donating to the corporation's cause, the corporation shouldn't take all the credit for it.
For clarity's sake, let's call last night's show "Idol Viewers Give Back."

The Boys of Summer Return

I've been a diehard Texas Rangers fan since they were the Washington Senators. That gives me a level of baseball frustration almost as intense as that of Cubs fans. I told one of my sons and my son-in-law, both certified Rangers head-against-the-wall beaters like myself, that for some strange reason, I felt cautiously optimistic about the 2008 season.
On paper, the best the Rangers can hope for is a third place finish in the AL West, yet I remain optimistic. With the finish of the season's first week, I see signs my optimism is justified, as well as signs that I am doomed to another summer of "Wait 'til next year!"
On the plus side, the Rangers were 3-3, pretty good considering all six games were on the road at Seattle and Anaheim, the top dogs of the West. Better yet, the Rangers got 5 quality starts from their pitchers in the first 6 games, after being dead last in the AL in 2007.
Kevin Millwood, who was forgettable last year, tossed a complete game in his second start. The Rangers had ZERO complete games last year. Vicente Padilla, another starter with a terrible '07 campaign, also had two quality starts.
Best of all, newcomers Ben Broussard, Milton Bradley and Josh Hamilton paid immediate dividends at the plate, along with David Murphy, who came over from the Red Sox late in the '07 season, taking the pressure off mainstays Michael Young, Ian Kinsler and Hank Blalock. Holdover catcher Gerald Laird also had a 2 HR 6 RBI game against the Angels, increasing hopes his 2006 season was more indicative of his talent than 2007.
One can't be a Rangers fan, however, without also noticing the glass half-empty, so here's why my early season optimism must be taken with a grain of salt. The Mariners and Angels hit a combined .294 against Texas pitching, easily the highest average against a pitching staff in the league after one week. That means Rangers pitchers wiggled out of a lot of jams, but they need to improve or it'll be a long season. The fielding still sucks. Last year, Texas allowed more unearned runs than any team and they're already next to last after only one week. And while it's nice seeing Ben Broussard hit three HR's in the first week, he's never hit more than 19 in a season, and that was his rookie year in 2005.
The Rangers have a killer April: 20 of their first 28 games are against teams with winning records last season, 13 of those against Seattle, Anaheim, Detroit and Boston. Another three are against the Twins, just under .500 a year ago. The remaining five are against Baltimore and Kansas City.
With that in mind, I now quantify my optimism for 2008. If Texas finishes April at 13-15 or better, a winning record for the season is a real possibility. If they finish 12-16 or worse, you'll see my head raising a lot of bumps this summer, while my wall gets more and more dents.