It used to be that one mans (or womans) opinion was just that–the subjective thoughts of a single individual. But thats all changed with the advent of the World Wide Web and other venues for instant polling.
Hardly a day goes by when Im not asked to participate–online, by phone, on television, in the supermarket–in some poll or survey. Its quite flattering, really, that so many people seem to think my opinion is so important.
Case in point: While watching the American League Divisional Series on TV recently, I saw a poll question pop up on the bottom of my screen. At the time, the California Angels were struggling against the New York Yankees in game one. The pop-up question said something like: "Should [California manager] Mike Scioscia pull the starting pitcher out of the game?"
I picture the sequence of events something like this:
I go online and vote to pull the starter.
The phone rings in the Angels dugout and a breathless bench coach relays the message to Scioscia: "Ara Trembly says pull our starter."
Scioscia bounds out of the dugout, interrupting the at-bat of Jason Giambi, and sprints to the mound.
"Youre outta here," a panting Scioscia tells the starter. "What? Why are you taking me out?" the stunned hurler asks.
"We just got the word from Ara Trembly, the Tech Guru," Scioscia explains.
"Oh, well thats okay, then," says the pitcher, meekly making his way to the dugout.
Meanwhile, the plate umpire comes out to the mound to see what all the fuss is about. "Trembly told us to pull the guy out," Scioscia tells him.
"Ara Trembly, the Tech Guru?" the ump inquires. Scioscia nods his assent. "Good God, man, what took you so long?"
Unfortunately, my advice reached the Angels a bit too late for that game, but you can be sure my input played a pivotal role in Anaheims subsequent annihilation of the hapless, pathetic, impotent Yankees but I digress.
While Web surfing one day, I found a poll about the characters of the TV sitcom, "Friends." The question was something like: "Should Rachel marry Joey or Ross?"
