MOMENTS, MEMORIES and MADNESS with STEVE CAMERON: Google is often helpful, but it sure takes the fun out of trivia

Google has knocked a hole in my life.

Not on the professional side, obviously, since a reference tool that can produce answers in seconds makes the life of a columnist so much easier.

I should say thanks for that, fair enough.

But any kind of new technology — you know, the breakthroughs that your average 11-year-old masters in minutes — gives me a pounding headache.

Now then…

Regarding our main topic today, I actually can navigate Google without too many problems, though I always suspect there is more (and delicious) information available.

If only I’d asked the right question or phrased my search properly.

Still, I’m surviving and learning.

All that stuff that I’ve missed through lack of tech skills, well…

C’est la vie!

I CONFESS that’s pretty neat, right there, grabbing a line from another language.

Although…

I don’t even bother trying to put phrases into context.

Oh, and I’m sure these silly little lines must be annoying to anyone within earshot.

Sammie the World’s Greatest Cat rolls her eyes when I discover something on Google, then repeat it mindlessly to her.

“C’est la chat.”

Yes, that is a cat.

Duh.

I expect Sammie would love to respond: “C’est le sot.”

Anyhow…

Let’s get back to the reason I’m upset about Google’s intrusion into my life.

It’s simple.

I love trivia.

You know, those bits of useless information that can pop up at parties, or with friends in a pub.

It’s fun, injecting any bit of trivia into a conversation — and it’s especially terrific in a group of sports junkies.

IMAGINE the wide eyes and gaping mouths when someone, making a point in a baseball discussion, brings up the subject of a pinch-runner.

And without missing a beat, you say…

“Speaking of that, who ran for Eddie Gaedel?”

This is one of those trivia questions where, unless you immediately know the subject and context…
You won’t get the answer.

You can’t think it through, or let logic guide you.

You either know it or you don’t, which is wonderful.

Except, of course, for Google.

(I can hear those keys tapping right now, as you look up Eddie Gaedel, skim through the general story, and discover why a pinch-runner likely would have been necessary.)

Yes, you can tap your way to the answer.

Right then, right in those moments as you’re battering the keys and acquainting — or reacquainting — yourself with the tale of Eddie Gaedel, it will come to you.

Not just Eddie’s story, but a far larger, even a universal view…

You’ll come to agree that Google has snatched away a whole lot of fun.

YEAH, I’VE been a trivia goof – and especially a sports trivia goof – for as long as I can remember.

My dad knew an incredible number of these tidbits, and he could always find the perfect spot to let a particularly fascinating little question drop into a conversation.

It always felt as though he were waiting to baffle the rest of us with a spectacularly interesting puzzle, but…

He wasn’t.

Nope, he just knew facts (of all kinds) the way Carl Sagan knew stars, and he could summon an amazing question almost at will.

For instance…

“The Yankees have been the dominant team for more than a century,” Dad might say, as a group of us (both kids and adults) were watching a baseball movie.

“Just a few pitchers over the years have had success against the Yanks — like Frank Lary of the Tigers, who beat them consistently at a time in the 1950s and 60s when the Yankees won the World Series six times.

“Lary was even nicknamed ‘The Yankee Killer,’ but he didn’t have the BEST record and earned run average against the Yanks.

“So, who did?

SEE HOW much fun we’re missing with Google sitting right there on our phones.

I’m glad I had all those years without instant information as close as a tiny keyboard.

It was cool.

Not just for sports questions, either.

For instance…

What was the name of Bonny Parker’s husband?

Oh, and in case you DON’T have answers for the obscure little trivia questions I’ve tossed out here today, I’ve decided not to share them.

You’ll have to call Mr. Google, and while you’re chatting…

Feel free to mention my name.

Email: scameron@cdapress.com

Steve Cameron’s “Cheap Seats” columns appear in The Press on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. “Moments, Memories and Madness,” his reminiscences from several decades as a sports journalist, runs each Sunday.

Steve also writes Zags Tracker, a commentary on Gonzaga basketball which is published each Tuesday.