Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning Updated To 11-24

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 12-23

...Ok, we're almost there. Two more days and the annual hounding of Christmas commercials will be over and done with. That right there is the worst part of Christmas for me because they don't allow you to step back and enjoy what should be the best time of the year. At least that's how it makes me feel.

...Considering what went on in Connecticut nine days ago I don't feel like celebrating at all.

...When the 26th gets here on Wednesday I don't want to hear any more Christmas songs, I don't want to see one more reindeer and I don't want to see anyone dressed up in a red suit on top of a sleigh. I've had enough. For me, December26th is the first day I start to think about spring.

...My wife and I have been watching a lot of the news coverage on what happened in Newtown and we both thought that the President made a very nice speech when he went there. When he finished I told my wife to just watch, someone's going to say something bad about it sure enough that's what happened and it took a stupid redneck to make my prediction come true. A football player from the University of Alabama was so upset that Obama was making that speech in Newtown because by doing that it was cutting into the Sunday night NFL game. Angered by this he jumped on Twitter and wrote "take that n----- off the TV, we wanna watch football!" It didn't surprise me at all that this comment came from Alabama since they are the inbreed capitol of the country. All this tweet cost him was his spot on the team as the Crimson Tide sent him packing. There are times when I hate when I'm right.

...The Hasbro company is coming out with a gender-neutral color for the popular Easy Bake Oven toy all because of a petition started by a thirteen year old girl whose little brother wanted to use it to to make things but complained about the pink and purple floral color of it, saying that only girls play with it. So after making a video on youtube asking Hasbro to make more "boy friendly" colors, Hasbro decided to grant her request. Honestly I don't know what this kid is talking about. I've had a "boy friendly" oven in my house for years now. It's called a microwave.

...I suppose things have really changed a lot over the years because when I was a kid I didn't want anything that did not involve me playing outside.

...Two bank robbers escaped from a high rise jail in Chicago last Tuesday by scaling down about 20 stories using a makeshift rope tied to the cell bars. Investigators found a broken window in the men's cell and each man's bed was stuffed with clothing and sheets to resemble a body. After this incident it will probably be the last time that The Shawshank Redemption is shown on movie nights in that prison.

...It hit me all of a sudden that today is the 40th anniversary of the Immaculate Reception. I didn't understand it then and now after all this time has passed I'm convinced that the referees messed up the call. Watching the instant replays again and again I can see the ball clearly hit Pittsburgh's Frenchy Fuqua first and not Jack Tatum of Oakland. (Rules back then did not permit two offensive players to touch the ball on the same play.) And because I've been blessed (or cursed, I still haven't figured out which) with a good memory, this play is still as fresh in my mind as it was when it first happened.

...Thanks to Youtube I can show you the play here. Just watch. It's 4th and 10 and Oakland's winning 7 - 6. The Raiders almost sack Terry Bradshaw and the lucky SOB ends up flinging it down field. Pretty soon you see Fuqua and Tatum getting closer and closer. The ball bounces off Fuqua and Franco Harris, who was doing nothing but jogging downfield, happened to be in the right place and catches the ball inches off the ground and runs for the winning score. I've hated Franco Harris for forty years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BR9kIcS9tQ

...I'm very happy that the Yankees did not cave in and sign Josh Hamilton even though he has a perfect swing made for Yankee Stadium. The Angels committed a lot of money towards this guy for the next five years and with him it is going to be more of a gamble of just keeping healthy and productive on the ball field. You never know if or when he is going to slip back into drugs or alcohol and if that happens that 125 million dollar won't be worth the paper that it was signed on.

...Tim Tebow, who has played sparingly this season, is expected to ask the New York Jets to trade or release him when the season is done if back up quarterback Greg McElroy starts the final two games for the Jets. Who can blame him? Along with Tebow there's probably fifty-one other players that want to leave the Jets too.

...There's even more bad news for Tebow this week as he's broken up with his girlfriend that he's been going out with for six months now. Saying that things "just didn't work out" both have gone their separate ways. I'll tell you,this is just horrible news. Now he's young, rich and single? Poor guy.

...One thing we can all identify with is when fast food chains mess up our order. For example when I tell them I want a coffee with cream and sugar I can be sure more times than not that one or the other will not be in the cup. But for one guy in Pennsylvania who went to a McDonalds for lunch, this lack of attention by the employees there to give him what he wanted was too much for him. He ordered a hamburger with no cheese and when he sat down to eat he discovered that he was given a cheeseburger instead. This prompted him to throw one of the restaurant’s highchairs and knock over a trash bin before going outside. But he wasn't done yet. When an employee followed the man into the parking lot to write down his license plate number the guy grabbed the phone from the employee's hand and threw it across the lot. The customer is being charged with disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, and simple assault for his actions. All this because he got cheese on his hamburger. Can you imagine what would he would have done if he didn't want pickles too?

...Sarah Palin (remember her?) is upset with Time Magazine for naming President Obama the 2012 Person of the Year, saying it was "irrelevant" on the magazine's part to honor him like this. She should know because if there is anyone out there who knows a thing or two about being irrelevant it would be her.

...Last Wednesday night down in Chile Madonna threatened to cancel her concert because people in front of the stage were smoking cigarettes while she was doing a soundcheck. Apparently the smoke irritates her throat and it affects her ablity to lipsync.

...Stanford University in Northern California is one of the most prestigious and progressive universities in the country. It's a very open minded and laid back school so it was no surprise to learn that they recently added a chaplain on campus for students who are atheists. Maybe the people who do not believe in the existence of God need some kind of assurance that they're right. That's where this chaplain -who also happens to be an atheist- comes in. All this time I thought chaplains for atheists were called bartenders.

...Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood (age 65) got married in London last Friday to his fiancee, who is all of 34 years old. This must be true love, just like Hugh Hefner's upcoming wedding. God knows how long this will last. Wood looks like he has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 12-30

...Nick Swisher is now a Cleveland Indian. This is going to work out great for him. He can smile and wave to the fans all season and not have to worry about hitting in the post season because he won't be there.

...Melissa Nelson, a woman who was a dental assistant for ten years was fired from her job because she was too "irresistible" and a "threat" to her employer's marriage. To make matters worse for her the Iowa State Supreme Court upheld the employers decision, saying that he was within his legal rights when he fired her. To put it another way the dentist that she worked for thought she was hot and wanted to give her a drilling that had nothing to do with dentistry.

The dentist's wife also works at the same practice so this is probably what caused the woman to be fired. The wife had trust issues and the husband had self control issues. The couple even went as far

as consulting the senior pastor at their church about this and he agreed that Melissa Nelson should be fired to protect their marriage. Coincidentally as soon as she was fired from her dental assistant job she was offered a position as a secretary at the church at twice the salary she was getting.

...I'm having a hard time believing this story. Someone from Iowa is irresistible?

...There were five NBA games televised on Christmas Day and I didn't watch a minute of any one of them. I'd rather watch a Presidential debate instead of an NBA game.

...I don't know how you spent your Christmas but I hope it was nothing like the way Andruw Jones spent his. Jones and his wife got into a fight early on Christmas Day around 1:30 am after his wife asked him to help get their home ready for Christmas morning. Of all the wrong things to ask him at this time this had to be the worst as Jones went nuts and attacked her and when she tried to get away he dragged her down the stairs by her ankle and told her he was going to kill her. Jones was arrested on battery charges and spent about seven hours in jail and was later released on $2,500 bond. He must have been still upset that no one signed him to a new MLB contract. Either that or someone spiked the egg nog.

...As for me, my wife and I had a very traditional Christmas without any police presence. She got me a lot of nice things like she always does and I made sure to get her everything she wanted to plus a few other things she wasn't expecting. Among the gifts that I got one of them really stood out when she told me that I didn't have to go with her when it was time for her to go see Les Miserables.

...A man from New Hampshire named Scott Bennett won $2.1 million Megabucks lottery jackpot even though the ticket he received was not the one he intended to buy. When he went into the convenient store to buy lottery tickets he did not have any intention of purchasing Megabucks lottery ticket but that is what he was given by mistake. Bennett and his wife decided to take the lump sum payment of $1.3 million dollars and will use it to pay off some debt, remodel their kitchen and fund all three of their children's college education. Given the price of college tuition nowadays they might have just enough leftover for a nice meal.

...I noticed a shoutbox post in here that said that Ugie Urbina has intentions to play major league baseball again after being in jail for six years. How's a convicted felon going to get a visa to come and play in the U.S.? Besides, he's 38 years old or at least that's the age Venezuela has him going by. If he ever did come back to play here they'd find out he was 41. Also, can you imagine the things he'd hear from some of the fans in the stands?

Hey Ugie, some guy got killed near your hotel last night. What happened, did you get bored last night?

Don't kill that ump Ugie! We know that pitch was a strike too!!

How many of your teammates have you threatened so far?

...A five foot alligator was dumped last week in Detroit and thanks to a good Samaritan who saw someone throw something out of a truck that from a distance looked like a body, the gator is alive and well today. The man who rescued the animal said that it is common to see people drive by and dump their garbage along the street which makes sense when you stop and think about it because Detroit as a whole is one big garbage can in itself. Anyhow,the gator was taken in and warmed up before the Michigan Humane Society came by to pick it up to bring it to a home more suitable for it than the streets of Detroit. This is one lucky alligator because if it were anyone else in Detroit that saw it the gator would be a new pair of shoes about now.

...Geneticists have been asked to study the DNA of the person responsible for the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting to look for for abnormalities or mutations in his DNA. While I am all for anything that may help prevent something like this from happening again I have to wonder what they are going to do with the information they find, if any? And maybe while they are at it they should study the mother's DNA so they can find out what kind of genetic mutation made her insane enough to keep loaded guns in the same house as her mentally disturbed son?

...Hideki Matsui, one of the really good guys of baseball, retired last Thursday as an active player because he could no longer play the game at the level he wanted himself to play. He was only 38 years old and had he wanted to hang around more he could have since that would have been the perfect age for the Yankees to sign him.

...There is a Google app out that allows you to alter a picture of yourself by changing the shape of your eyes and it also allows you to add a Fu Manchu mustache and rice paddy hat to make you look Asian. Naturally some Asian-American organizations are not amused and are saying it is racial and offensive. Never mind that the designer of this app has ten other apps that lets you alter your appearance. Among the others available are apps to make you look old, bald, fat, punk or looking like Frankenstein. So far no representatives from these groups have come forward to complain about this app making them look bad. Why anyone would want any of these is the first question that I thought of. I mean Michael Jackson used the "make me white" app, and look where that got him. But this did give someone out there a chance to complain about something so I suppose that made them happy.

...Twenty-six Cuban migrants were caught in the Florida Straits trying to sneak into the country by the U.S.Coast Guard and were immediately sent back to Cuba once they were given food and water and medical attention. Marlins owner Jeffery Loria was very upset to learn that these people were caught and sent back to Cuba since he had made arrangements with all of them to work in his ballpark next year as cheap labor.

[GoRedSox34]

Hats off to Hideki Matsui for an outstanding career. Career OBP of .360, 175 career Home Runs and 760 career RBI (and he didn't begin playing in the Majors until 2003, when he was 28 years old). Furthermore, Matsui will always be remembered for his admirable character as a great teammate as well as his numerous charitable donations to victims of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami/earthquake in Japan in 2011. A true class act.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-6

...Well, we made it through the holidays and personally not a moment too soon. Now I got seven weeks to save up for Valentine's Day, which is the next gift giving holiday. It never ends.

...I really felt bad for the guy that Jenny McCarthy kissed when the clock struck midnight at Times Square because he probably woke up with a cold sore on his lips the next day.

You can choose your friends but not your family DEPT: On Christmas Eve a Pittsburgh area pastor's niece and her boyfriend were jailed on charges that they burglarized his home while the clergyman was conducting Christmas service. They stole a handgun, laptop, credit cards, personal checks and rare coins and were caught some time later while driving a stolen SUV. The pastor told the police that he believes his niece did this to support the drug habit she is on. Talk about an unexpected surprise for Christmas. I bet that family had a wonderful Christmas reunion.

...While police were busy keeping an eye on the busy areas of Paris on New Year's Eve where people were preparing to greet in the New Year, four armed robbers forced their way into an Apple store and made off with $1.3 million worth of iPhones, iPads and other devices. Wearing masks, they entered through a service entrance into the store and calmly went through boxes of Apple products before driving off. I am far from being an expert on the items that they stole but isn't there a tracking mechanism built into these devices which can be used to remotely locate them? Then again with the way I hear how good Apple Maps works these guys have nothing to worry about. If you think about it this is kind of ironic in a way. This time Apple got robbed. Usually it is the customers who are robbed every time they buy something in their store.

...Apple's knee-jerk reaction to when they first heard about this heist was to blame Samsung.

...Meanwhile up in England police are looking for two men dressed up as 'Oompa Loompa' characters who, along with two other people, attacked and beat a man in Norfolk as he suffered cuts to his face, nose and lip and as a bonus, two black eyes. All this time I thought they never left Wonka's factory. Can you imagine the line up at the police station for witnesses to identify the assailants?

...And after you read this if you start humming that Oompa Loompa song to yourself don't blame me.

...In another example of southern stupidity a twenty-two year old Florida man tried to rob a convenience store by saying he had a gun but left the store without any cash when the clerk showed him the empty store register. After he left the store he walked to a phone booth to call his mother so she could come and pick him up to bring him home. He never made it since the police got to him first and arrested him for attempted robbery without a weapon. Poor guy. This must have been his first robbery out on his own. They make it look so easy on TV.

...I've had a cold and cough all week and basically have been feeling as bad as one gets when you go through these things. I've also been taking Nyquil before going to bed and trust me when they say it knocks you out you better believe it. I could be minding my own business watching TV and the next thing I know is my wife shaking me to go upstairs. That is some pretty powerful stuff.

...I bought my wife a new microwave for Christmas and now I'm reluctant to use it because I'm afraid I'll get it dirty somehow and she'll kill me.

...Police from Santa Fe Springs in California arrested a thirty-five year old man in connection with a body that was found in a newly poured concrete floor inside a Southern California heating and air conditioning business. They received a tip that a homicide victim was located inside a business but when they got there they found nothing until they brought the cadaver dogs in and they started sniffing the floor and they figured something was up because there wasn't any dog food in the place. The dogs ended up being right and the coroner's excavation team dug up the body of an adult male. No doubt they'll find the victim was a hardened criminal.

...I know now that Jed Clampett is not the only one with a cement pond in Southern California.

...I would love to know the reason why TNT cancelled Leverage. It was one of the best shows on that network and they got rid of it.

...Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis will be retiring at the end of this season and he is reported to be headed to ESPN to be a color analyst for them. That's all these NFL shows need is another loudmouth ex-player who tries to make the show about him instead of the game out on the field. Shannon Sharpe is famous for this. Oh well, this might be good for Lewis since this might keep him out of the night clubs since his lawyers might not get him off so easy as they did thirteen years ago. We all have skeletons in our closet so we really shouldn't be quick to judge but unfortunately for Lewis, his are actual skeletons.

...Five Idaho inmates are suing some of the country's top beer and liquor companies for one billion dollars because they say they should have been warned of the beverages' addictive nature which lead them to committing the crimes that have them behind bars. These guys got to be still drunk if they think they have a chance in winning this case but then again the way things are these days you never know. In case they get no where with this lawsuit maybe in the next one they can sue the prison that feeds them three meals a day and the U.S. taxpayers that provide the money to the prison.

...I will be watching the progress of this case because the next time we get blasted with a snowstorm I am hiring a lawyer to sue the Weather Channel. Got to blame someone, right?

...Last week Kanye West announced that he and Kim Kardashian are expecting a child. Pretty bold move since Kardashian is still married to basketball player Kris Humphries but with that family that means nothing. Sadly, the Kardashians epitomize new contemporary American values: greed and illegitimate children. I feel bad for the kid because he or she will be untalented and arrogant, just like the parents.

...A few more things to ponder on while you're drinking your coffee this morning:

If it wasn't Kanye West that knocked her up, does she know who did? She gets around more than a Vegas escort.

After hearing about this news the Pope will now finally change his mind about abortion.

This just proves that this kind of thing doesn't just happen in trailer parks.

The pregnancy news just gave Kardashian's mother another excuse to go out and have more plastic surgery.

Someone should steal the bathroom stall from the nightclub that the child was conceived in because if they sell it on eBay they'll make a bundle.

What will Kim do with the baby if she is bored with it after 72 days?

...Yesterday an earthquake measuring 7.5 magnitude struck off southeastern Alaska that triggered a tsunami warning. Fortunately this did not cause any severe damage or injuries. Somehow Sarah Palin is going to find a way to blame this on the Democrats.

...Earlier today the Texans beat the Bengals in the who-gives-a-**** bowl to start off the NFL playoffs and the Packers beat up on the Vikings in Green Bay. I didn't care about that game too much but then I remembered that one of the better people on this website is a Viking fan so I decided to root for them for Jim825's sake. As you can see it didn't help. They need Fran Tarkenton to come back Jim. Who knows?

...My fearless predictions for the NFL wild card games later on today. I'll take the Colts over the Ravens. I'm certain of this because I flipped a coin. And in the late game I'll take the Redskins maybe because they are the home team and I dislike everything about the city of Seattle except for Dennis James because he just moved there recently. :D

[Jim825]

...Earlier today the Texans beat the Bengals in the who-gives-a-**** bowl to start off the NFL playoffs and the Packers beat up on the Vikings in Green Bay. I didn't care about that game too much but then I remembered that one of the better people on this website is a Viking fan so I decided to root for them for Jim825's sake. As you can see it didn't help. They need Fran Tarkenton to come back Jim. Who knows?

Thanks for the support. When I first read on Saturday that Christian Ponder had pain in his elbow and shoulder, I knew that the Vikings had less of a chance for a win. When I saw that he was out completely and that Joe Webb (who 3 passes all season!) would be getting the start, I knew that they had NO chance of winning. Despite Webb being in the game, the Vikings weren't completely embarrassed.

At least I can be thankful that they improved from a 3-win team in 2011 to a 10-win team this year and actually made the playoffs. Plenty of teams didn't get that far.

[Yankee4Life]

At least I can be thankful that they improved from a 3-win team in 2011 to a 10-win team this year and actually made the playoffs. Plenty of teams didn't get that far.

You mean like Oakland?? Hahahahahaa.

Oh man I got to laugh because if I don't it will hurt. What is it going to take to turn those Raiders around?

[Jim825]

You mean like Oakland?? Hahahahahaa.

Oh man I got to laugh because if I don't it will hurt. What is it going to take to turn those Raiders around?

If the Vikings can talk Fran Tarkenton out of retirement, maybe the Raiders can convince Ken Stabler to play. After all, Stabler is 5 years younger than Tarkenton! ^_^

[JoeRudi26]

If the Vikings can talk Fran Tarkenton out of retirement, maybe the Raiders can convince Ken Stabler to play. After all, Stabler is 5 years younger than Tarkenton!

We really need a "Like" button. I'd start watching the NFL again if these guys came back. Even at 65 years old. :p

[dennisjames71]

...Meanwhile up in England police are looking for two men dressed up as 'Oompa Loompa' characters who, along with two other people, attacked and beat a man in Norfolk as he suffered cuts to his face, nose and lip and as a bonus, two black eyes. All this time I thought they never left Wonka's factory. Can you imagine the line up at the police station for witnesses to identify the assailants?

...And after you read this if you start humming that Oompa Loompa song to yourself don't blame me.

...My fearless predictions for the NFL wild card games later on today. I'll take the Colts over the Ravens. I'm certain of this because I flipped a coin. And in the late game I'll take the Redskins maybe because they are the home team and I dislike everything about the city of Seattle except for Dennis James because he just moved there recently.

Police in England have identified one of the Ooompa-Loompa assailants as none other than our favorite "distracted" and sometimes "mentally-challenged" 3rd baseman of the Yankees...Hmmm...off-season surgery indeed.

Lol! Thanks Y4L for not disliking me for being in Seattle...though I experience some things lately around here that almost makes me want to move back to Southern California. Well, maybe they aren't THAT bad. :crazy:

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-13

...What is it with ESPN? And I'm not talking about lousy way they cover sports. Why did they have to go and issue an apology for what Brent Musberger said? What did he say that was so out of line? The girl that he was talking about (Katherine Webb) happens to be Miss Alabama so you can imagine she is doing pretty good in the looks department, which of course she was. But Musberger didn't say anything insulting except that she was a beautiful woman an jokingly added to the boys in Alabama to throw the football around so they can get a girl like her. There were no leering remarks or comments made. Even Miss Alabama once she was informed about this said she had no problem with what Musberger said but ESPN apologized anyway because now it seems we have to be contrite for acknowledging that a woman is beautiful.

...Little by little we are losing the freedom of speech in this country because there are individuals so bent out of shape watching and worrying about what everyone is saying that pretty soon we will not be able to say hello to someone if you don't know them first for fear of infringing on their right to privacy.

...A man had to be forcibly restrained to his seat with zip ties and duct tape on an international flight from Iceland to New York last week when he became unruly with other passengers after he hit, screamed at and yelled profanities at them. He became disorderly after consuming a bottle of Duty-Free alcohol before boarding the flight and after attempts to calm him down failed he had to remain in his seat unable to move. The worst part however was after he was strapped down the flight attendant placed headphones over his ears, forcing him to listen to Lady Gaga until the flight landed hours later at JFK airport in New York.

...If this guy was at an Eagles game no one would have looked twice at him.

...A seventeen year old student from Alabama who proclaimed himself to be a white supremacist was charged in a plot to kill fellow students with homemade explosive devices after a teacher found the kid's journal and saw that it contained plans to kill six students and one teacher with homemade grenades. All six individuals were black and the seventh one on his list was a white male whom he thought was gay. Imagine, a white supremacist in Alabama. Who would have thought that? And he had all the bases covered too when he targeted blacks and gays. Once this kid gets done serving his time for this the KKK is going to go find him and give him a dinner in his honor.

...Believe me I am not making light of this. I don't understand where all this violence from kids this young and a bit older. When I was in high school I was consumed with getting the best grades I could, playing sports, looking at girls and having fun with my friends on weekends. We never did or thought of doing anything to hurt people. Baseball, football and hockey was what it was about for me at this age.

...What I want to know is how do you proclaim yourself a "white supremacist"? What do you have to do, take an online course for this? People like this make me ashamed to be white.

...Last week Brad Pitt announced that he will be visiting China for the very first time. He's been banned from visiting that country ever since the movie he made back in 1997 called the Seven Years in Tibet where he played the Dalai Lama’s Austrian tutor. Since the Chinese Foreign Ministry did not like the portrayal of the Dalai Lama in the film Pitt has never been allowed into the country until now, which is good news for all of Pitt's Chinese fans. The only thing I'd do if I were the Chinese people is to hide their kids before Pitt and Angelina Jolie get there because if they don't she'll bring one back home with her.

...Oh what good news! Kobe Bryant and his wife Vanessa have decided not to get divorced after all and they even ran to Facebook to post this news to the world because as we all know if you read something on Facebook it has to be true. The only people who aren't happy about this is the lawyers and maybe Kobe's mother-in-law. Maybe his wife is just waiting until he signs a new contract and then decide to continue with the divorce.

...Last month I wrote in here about Taylor Swift and her twenty-five boyfriends. Now she's on the prowl for #26 because she and her lastest love have gone their separate ways because of a difference of opinion. She thought she was the greatest thing in the world and he didn't and that means he had to go. All her ex's don't just live in Texas. They live all over the place. This girl reminds me of that movie How to lose a guy in 10 days but for her it is more like ten hours. She's got a hell of a long way to go to catch Madonna but if anyone can do it she can.

...For any baseball fan that has been following the game and what has been going on off the field the past few years, finding out that Roger Clemens and Barry Bonds were not elected to the Hall of Fame was no surprise to anyone. This was their first time on the ballot and both did not even come close to getting the 75 percent of the vote necessary for election into the Hall. Both of these players have the numbers to get in but it is their steroid use that is going to keep them out. I'm sure some people will complain but this time the sportswriters got it right. These two did it to themselves. The sad thing is that one of these days one or both of them will get in.

...There will bepeople elected this year but all three are from the Veteran's Committee and all are long since gone from this world. Hank O'Day, who was a former player, manager and umpire was elected. He died in 1935. Infielder Deacon White, who played in the 1800's and former Yankee owner Jacob Ruppert were also elected. Both White and Ruppert passed away in 1939. For anyone who wants to attend a Hall of Fame ceremony this summer would be the perfect year if you're one to avoid huge crowds.

...A 70 year old Saudi Arabian man made news recently when he married a 15 year old girl by paying a $20,000 dowry to the girl's family. By waiting seventy years to get married it was obvious that money was no object to him but his new wife must have had some wedding night jitters and as soon as she had a chance she ran back to her family. Nothing could be done to change the girl's mind about this after she returned home so the marriage was granted a divorce. That's too bad because there was such high hopes for this marriage. I was really hoping things could have worked out.

...A media professor at a Florida university is claiming that the events at Sandy Hook did not happen as reported last month. He's questioning if the shooting ever took place at least in the way law enforcement authorities and the news media said it did. He went on to say that trained "crisis actors" were sent to Newtown by the Obama administration to shape public opinion on gun control. The worst part is when he said that the number of the people shot and killed that day is incorrect. This seems so far fetched to me that it's not even funny. Someone should ask this guy if the number of kids who died that day was incorrect where did the school get all those imaginary kids to bury?

...I'd like to see this guy go to Newtown and say this to every parent that lost one of their own that day. Then he'll see how fast a crazy conspiracy theory like this turns into him getting his bell rung a few times.

...The State of Iowa gets weirder and weirder in how they treat women. A few weeks back I wrote about a dental assistant who got dismissed from her job because the dentist thought she was so hot and he was afraid he'd have to slam-bam her before any more time had passed. So she gets sent packing and files a lawsuit and the Supreme Court there said forget it, you have no case. Now a female officer who works at the maximum-security state prison has filed a suit against the prison because administrators have allowed the prisoners to watch violent and sexually explicit movies and TV shows for years despite repeated complaints from her who said it encouraged inmates to sexually harass her. Some of the prisoners there are murderers, sexual predators and mentally ill inmates and when she said they were shown a movie like Delta of Venus which is an erotic film, she said the inmates would get into the film and then make sexually aggressive towards her. Prison officials would not listen to her complaints and one warden went as far as blaming her for causing problems by complaining. Once prison officials finally responded to her requests by finally barring movies with sexually explicit content that is when she started getting death threats by the inmates because they blamed her for not getting to see these movies. Despite these threats her supervisors refused to move her to a job where she wouldn't be in contact with the prisoners and they only moved her to a desk job last month after the lawsuit was filed. This sounds like a reasonable complaint to me but then I remembered she's in Iowa so she's going to lose this. Why play these kind of movies for people like this? It's like teasing a wolf with a piece of meat because you know eventually the wolf's going to get it along with most of your hand.

...Must be nice in Iowa. You murder someone, you get room and board and three meals a day all for free, daily exercise outside and at night an erotic movie you can watch with your cellmates. Nothing but the best!

...Milton Bradley's famous temper has got him into trouble again but this time it's a lot more serious then screaming at reporters and trying to go after umpires. He's looking at serving up to thirteen years behind bars after being charged with thirteen misdemeanor counts. Bradley and his wife are going through a testy divorce and all these charges relate to his wife's accusations of spousal abuse. And he's been pretty busy too since he's being charged with spousal battery, criminal threats, assault with a deadly weapon and vandalism. Who would have thought such an even tempered guy is capable of this ?

...This is probably going to end up hurting him when he comes up for Hall of Fame consideration in a few years.

...I'm not a Ravens fan in any way but any time Denver loses in the playoffs I am grateful.

...My Bet-the-house (but not really) sure thing bets for today's games are -hold up, I'm flipping the coin again- Atlanta over Seattle and Houston over the Patriots because the only time I'll cheer for Boston is when the whole city falls into the Atlantic. Exaggeration? Sure. But you get the drift.

...Everyone have a wonderful week!

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-20

...Roger Clemens' sister attacked Goose Gossage on Twitter after the former Yankee reliever applauded baseball writers for denying her brother and Barry Bonds entrance to baseball's Hall of Fame last week. For those of you who are unaware, Gossage has been one of the most outspoken Hall of Famers that have been opposed to having Clemens and Bonds enter the Hall. This isn't the first time Clemens' sister has used Twitter to go after people in defense of her brother. Two years ago she attacked Andy Pettitte and other witnesses during the jury selection for Clemens' first trial. Clemens himself has been very quiet about all of this and if you were him you would be too since he's the one supplying the words for his sister to write. You can't keep the Rocket down. You can keep him out of the Hall but he'll find a way to throw stones so you'll notice him.

...I am sure that I am in the minority in this, but the news about Lance Armstrong coming clean about using performance enhancing drugs did not even interest me. Should it? I've been so used to ballplayers being caught using this stuff and then issuing mea culpas that it means nothing anymore. It's his problem because he chose to do it and to cover it up by trying to intimidate anyone who dared say he wasn't on the up and up. And if someone like Roger Clemens ever goes this route to admit what he did he's going to end up being treated even worse then Armstrong because when Armstrong was at the top a lot of people liked him and you can't say the same about Clemens.

...Aside from the Hall of Fame news last week there hasn't been much baseball news so far this month and that really isn't surprising considering the time of year. But give these writers credit because they have to think of something. Someone actually took the time to project the opening day payroll of every single major league team and for the first time in many years the Yankees do not lead everyone in total payroll. That honor now goes to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who have a $213 million payroll thanks to that huge trade with Boston last year and the free agent signings in the off season. That's $76 million dollars more than the World Champion Giants are starting the season with and with all this cash the Dodgers are throwing around they just might be good enough to come in second place in the National League West.

...Horsemeat has been found in some supermarket burgers in Ireland including a burger sold by U.S. global retailer Tesco that authorities said was made of roughly 30 percent horse. The Agriculture Minister of Ireland is blaming a lone meat processor in Northern Ireland for the mix-up and this was exposed to the public when someone found a horse show in their burger.

...Eighteen frozen human heads were found seized by customs officials during routine X-ray screening of cargo arriving at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago. The heads were used for medical research in Italy and were being returned for cremation in Illinois. The bodies from the neck on down caught a later flight.

...Wouldn't you like to see the look on the someone's face if they accidentally brought one of these things home thinking it was their luggage?

...Three men and a 14-year-old kid were arrested when a violent brawl broke out at, of all places, a baby shower in Boston where punches and bottles were thrown and furniture being smashed. I have no idea why men would be at a baby shower in the first place unless there was some kind of contest going on to guess who the father of the baby might be. Either that or they were fighting to see who would be taking the mother-to-be home that night. This just proves that the people in that city just don't act like this at sporting events, they're like this at all times.

...I can't wait to read about what these people do when this kid has his first birthday party.

...I've only been to one baby shower in my entire life and that was the one for my sister. I went there at the end with my brother-in-law to help pick up the gifts and put them in the car to bring home. The closest thing to violence that day was when my sister saw me trying to take a cookie that someone had made for her and I got my hand slapped. That's the last time I've been to a baby shower but not the last time I got my hand slapped.

...Only in Philadelphia Dept: Philadelphia police arrested a man last week after he punched a woman and dragged her by her ankles to the subway tracks and then threw her on top of them. He then took her cell phone and walked away. Aside from some bumps and bruises the woman will be fine. The unmistakeable lesson to be learned here is not to take your iPhone 5 out in public in Philadelphia for any reason because you never know to what lengths someone will go to to get one.

...A Southern California teacher who was fired from her job last year because the school district found out she was a porn star before she took on her teaching duties was denied her appeal to get her position back. The district said they first became aware of her hidden past when the fathers of every student she had insisted on being at the parent-teacher meetings.

...The NRA made themselves look like damn fools last Wednesday when they came out with an ad that was critical of the President and his gun control stance because the Secret Service people who protect his two children at their schools are armed even though he opposes the NRA's call for armed guards in schools. They neglected to say that everyone who is part of the immediate First Family has security guards that are assigned to them and remain with them for life even through administration changes. And yes, they are armed. It makes me wonder what the head gun nut at the NRA would be saying right now had he had one of his kids enrolled at Sandy Hook and they were one of the twenty who died last month. In that case this ad would have never been made. It's always easy to distance yourself when it doesn't happen to you. That's the mindset of the NRA.

...Three people were wounded at a North Carolina gun show when a 12-gauge shotgun accidentally discharged when its owner was taking it out of its case at the entrance of the show while he was having his personal firearm inspected before entering the building. It seems as if this good ole boy must have had other things on his mind because when he went to grab the gun from the case it went off in his hands and three people near him got mementos from the show they didn't expect. You can teach gun safety to owners but they are the ones that have to apply it. You can do background checks on people before they get guns but how do you do a background check on stupidity?

...Where I live we have a group of crazies that call themselves The Polar Bear Club and every year they get together on usually one of the coldest days of the year and the whole lot of them run into Lake Ontario wearing nothing but their bathing suits and start swimming around. There's always a TV crew there filming this and when it's all done they pick one person to interview to ask him how it was (it was great!) and what they do it for (it's a lot of fun!) and all the while they are on TV their bottom lip can not stop quivering. I'm willing to try new things up to a point but the only thing I'll jump into in the wintertime besides a shower is a jacuzzi.

...Alex Rodriguez underwent successful surgery on his left hip last Wednesday and his doctor said that he should be able to resume his playing duties sometime around the All-Star break. That's just great because the Yankees really need to get his .260 batting average back in the lineup as soon as they can.

...How come all of a sudden no one wants to go with Robert Wagner for a ride on his boat?

...R.I.P. to ex-Baltimore manager Earl Weaver, who died on Friday while on a Caribbean cruise at the age of 82. When I was a kid growing up I did not like Weaver one bit because at that time his Orioles had some good teams and they'd beat the Yankees continuously, much to my frustration. After I got a little older and he retired and left baseball I realized how good he was for the game and how much I missed having him around baseball every day. The guy was a classic example to me about appreciating what someone did and contributed to the game after they had left it. It kind of reminds me of when Howard Cosell left Monday Night Football. Cosell's approach to covering the telecasts got some people upset especially when he said something they didn't like. But people still watched. And when Cosell decided to leave the Monday night booth those same people were happy. That is until they started to realize that the telecasts minus Cosell were not the same anymore and some of those same people wanted Cosell to return. They didn't appreciate what he did until he wasn't there anymore to do it. That's how I felt about Weaver. Couldn't care for the guy when he was in that Oriole dugout but after he left it I missed him. R.I.P. Earl of Baltimore.

...Just a few hours before I was getting ready to wrap up this week's random thoughts I came in here and I saw a shoutbox post from KC that Stan Musial died and that really hit me hard. You can't say enough good things about him that have not already been said before. I never saw him play so learning about him for me was through books, articles, columns by sportswriters and film clips. I actually met him once. It was back in 1992 and I went to a card show and paid $25 to stand in line to have him sign something. He had photos of himself and before I got there I purchased a Cardinal hat for him to sign. The instructions from the people running the show was not to linger and keep the line moving and the people ahead of me really didn't ask him much except how are you and how do you feel. Small talk like that. When it got to be my turn I was nervous and I thanked him for signing my hat and picture but then before I left I had to ask him this. Mr. Musial, I said, how was Ebbets Field? Was it as special as people have always said it was? He stopped what he was doing and put his pen down and said Brooklyn was a wonderful place to play and the fans were great. It was a fun place to play in as a visiting player. I thanked him and I left. I'm glad I met him. R.I.P. Stan Musial.

...Ok here we go for the Championship game predictions since I did so good last week. I think. Let's see, I don't want the 49ers to win at all so I will go for Atlanta but it wouldn't shock me at to see the Falcons fold up at the worst possible moment. In the AFC, Ravens over the Patriots. I realize in both predictions I am going against the team that I do not want to win for one reason or another and that should explain why I never place an actual bet on a game during the season.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-27

...Like most people I am in support of newer and tougher gun control laws that won't just keep young school children safer but everyone else too. And ever since the Newtown incident last month I can understand school administrators being a little jumpy but what one Pennsylvania school did to a little girl was completely out of line and in the end the only thing it accomplished is that it made them look like idiots. A five year old girl was suspended from the Mount Carmel Area Elementary School after she made what the school called a "terrorist threat." She was suspended and labeled a "threat" after school officials overheard her suggesting that she and a classmate should shoot each other with bubbles. The "weapon" that she was going to use to do this was a Hello Kitty automatic bubble blower. Instead of stopping and saying wait a second, what are we doing here, they went even further. They suspended the little girl for ten days and ordered her to undergo a psychological evaluation. Her suspension was later reduced to only two days when it was determined that she was normal and not a threat to others. Then again "normal" is what these school administrators consider themselves to be and they were the ones who put this girl through all of this. Who knows what crimes this kid might do next. Maybe she'll sneak in a bible and then they'll throw her out labeling her as a religious fanatic.

...The next thing we know is we are going to have universal background checks for automatic bubble blowers.

...And don't think this is an isolated incident. Early last week a little girl threw out a piece of paper that looked like it was in the shape of a gun and when another student told on her to say she had a gun the teacher scolded her and searched her in front of the other students and told the fifth grader that he should call the cops on her and she could be arrested. Keep in mind that this was a piece of paper and there was no hiding the fact that it was. We really can't seem to do a damned thing about the real killers but they are all over the kids who are packing bubble blowers and paper guns. These type of terrorists have no chance.

...Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

...Last Monday the 21st was called Blue Monday because it was supposed to be the most depressing day of the year. I've never heard of Blue Monday until just recently but I think there might be something to it because that was the day that my wife told me that her niece was coming up to spend the weekend with us.

...The Chicago Cubs announced a $300 million renovation project on Wrigley Field beginning next winter and it is going to be so involved that it could take up to five off seasons to complete. I wish them the best of luck and I hope it all turns out well for the fans but the only question I had is why are they waiting until the winter to start the work on the ballpark? They can start as soon as the regular season is over in early October because the Cubs always have other plans when post season time comes around and playing baseball isn't one of them.

...It's a smart move by the Cubs to spend all this money fixing up the place because if you remember an off season a few years back they spent this much buying players and that's how they ended up with Alfonso Soriano.

...Before I go any further it would be neglectful of me not to thank the Baltimore Ravens for beating the New England Patriots in last Sunday's AFC Championship game. Anything that happens to make a New England sports fan upset is ok by me in my book so thank you very much.

...We've got one more week to go before the Super Bowl gets here and by that time there's going to be articles written covering every angle you can think of. So far the most interesting one I've read is the price of the tickets just to get into the Superdome. If I had to take a guess as to how much this would cost I'd have never come close. If you were lucky enough to snag a ticket to the upper level behind the end zone you'd only have to part with $2,130 per ticket. It gets worse. A pair of lower-level seats near the 50-yard line can be yours for $27,600. I don't know if I should be happy that I'd never consider paying that amount for one ticket or be upset knowing that I am poor enough to never be in that position to actually be able to buy one.

...Since the Dallas Cowboys won't be playing in the Super Bowl this year they figured they may as well start their off season the only way they know how when another one of their players was arrested on suspicion of driving while intoxicated. This time it was nose tackle Jay Ratliff and all he did was crash his 2012 Ford pickup into an eighteen wheeler. Ironically this happened on the same highway where last month teammate Josh Brent drove drunk and a Cowboys practice squad member was killed. Neither Ratliff nor the driver of the 18-wheeler were injured. This was just another example of the Cowboys showing what "America's Team" is all about.

...If this keeps up they are going to put up signs on that stretch of highway that say "Beware of deer crossing and fast driving Cowboys."

...One night last week when I was watching the news they had a news story on right at the end of the telecast about a little three year old boy in Australia who has made a name for himself by handling alligators by wrestling with them in the water. His father owns a wildlife park in Australia so this is how he got exposed to these animals at this young age. These kind of stories don't impress me at all because things can go wrong here so fast. The next time we'll hear about this little three year old is when one of those gators opens his mouth fast enough and grabs a piece of his arm and doesn't give it back.

...McDonalds and one of its franchise owners in Michigan have agreed to pay $700,000 to members of the Muslim community to settle allegations that a Detroit-area restaurant falsely advertised its food as being prepared according to Islamic dietary law called halal. There are only two McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. that sell halal products and both are in Michigan because that is the home of one of the nation's largest Arab and Muslim communities. This lawsuit had its origins almost a year and a half ago when a Muslim bought a chicken sandwich and found out it wasn't halal which meant that God's name was not invoked before the animal was slaughtered. Somehow to a Muslim if you don't do this the chicken won't taste like chicken. Let me see if I have this right. They come to our country and we have adjust to their ways but when we go to their country we are supposed to change to their customs and way of life. These are people that blow things up on a whim, behead women, throw acid in the face of their daughter because she looked at someone and they are somehow offended that a chicken wasn't "blessed" properly? All I want to know is why would someone who is so concerned with the religious preparation of their food eat at McDonalds?

...Last week hundreds of Chinese workers held their Japanese and Chinese managers hostage for a day and a half because they were only allowed two minute toilet breaks while at work. If a worker was late once past the two minute allotted time they would be fined 50 yuan (about eight dollars) and if they did it again they would be fired. What if you had to do something else instead of pee in a urinal? You can't get that done in two minutes. How would you like to be the guy who is in the restroom with a stop watch timing everyone? It's funny that we cannot go to or trade with Cuba but we buy mostly everything from China. Go figure.

...The CEO's from Walmart and Apple, two corporations that have factories in China, were furious to learn that some of the workers there were given two minutes to take care of business because they figured that one minute was more than enough.

...Apple announced last Wednesday that their stock dropped more than ten percent basically because they were not able to generate revenue growth by rolling out new versions of old products and lacking in revolutionary new products. This doesn't surprise me at all. They've released the exact same thing with a small face lift every year and it took the world six years to figure it out.

...Lending a hand while holding my nose Dept: If there are any of you out there with young kids that you are now in the process of potty training let me point you in the direction of a new product that could help. It's called the iPotty and for forty dollars you get a plastic child-sized toilet with a removable bowl and for the pièce de résistance an adjustable stand is included for mounting an iPad so your child can play games and watch videos while learning how to take care of themselves when nature calls. The iPotty also comes with instant Facebook updates so everyone can immediately know what your child is doing and where he's at. Maybe if this catches on down the road for an additional fee they'll offer iWipes although I am not sure if the kid will use them on himself or to clean the iPad with if he ends up touching it.

...Now that I think of it the iPotty is the perfect place for all Apple products.

...Why are people coming down on Manti Te'o? It's not like he used this news to get money out of people or special favors. People that actualy do try to get money off of people in a sneaky way don't even get questioned as much as this kid has been.

...Did you hear about that fifteen year old kid in New Mexico who killed his entire family and then after he was picked up by the police he told them he wanted to shoot up a Walmart? The relatives of this kid released a statement saying he was a troubled boy (you think?) but was also an outgoing person who wanted to serve in the military. They went on to paint a picture of the kid that was so good that once they were done you would want your daughter to date him. Then they really got serious. They said they were "deeply concerned" about some people in the media portraying this kid as some kind of monster. Is that so? When you kill five members of your family including your nine year old brother and two youngest sisters, age five and two, that's the definition of a monster. When you also have the desire to kill people at a Walmart, that's the definition of a monster. Someone should tell the surviving members of this family that monsters have a way of hiding for as long as they want. Until they don't want to anymore.

...Lance Armstrong has told the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that he now wants to help clean up cycling with them. Isn't that something how people get so altruistic after they get caught? The next thing he'll do is become a born-again Christian.

[GoRedSox34]

Dreading the inevitable glorification of Ray Lewis one week from today on Super Bowl Sunday.

6 children, 4 wives.

[Yankee4Life]

Dreading the inevitable glorification of Ray Lewis one week from today on Super Bowl Sunday.

6 children, 4 wives.

You're kidding? Really? I've never heard this. Damn guy must get around.

[Jim825]

That's nothing. Antonio Cromartie has double that -- 12 kids with 8 different women! http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/new-york-jets-antonio-cromartie-wife-expecting-twins-total-of-12-kids-8-different-women-041712

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-3

...Starting this week's random thoughts with a big welcome to the month of February because Spring Training starts this month and that means baseball news, baseball talk and spring exhibition games. The first games are slated to start in eighteen days when a split Red Sox roster face off against Northeastern and Boston College on February 21st. The Red Sox like to start out the spring by playing against college teams so they can feel good about themselves after they beat their brains in. The rest of the teams open up two days later. They'll be playing against major league competition.

...Football is what's on everyone's mind today of course and as soon as this NFL Championship game is done the better. I'm pulling for the Baltimore Ravens today by default because as a Raider fan I can't bring myself to root for the San Francisco 49ers.

...About a week and a half ago a career criminal escaped from a Detroit jail and he now has a nationwide manhunt out looking for him. This was no daring jailbreak that took place in the middle of the night and it didn't involve getting over barbed wire fences or crawling through tunnels. That's strictly TV stuff. This guy did it the easy way by walking out the front door undetected and was not discovered missing until five days later. He was able to do this by switching ID wristbands with another inmate. It appears that the guards at this jail are so used to just looking at the ID bands of the inmates and not their faces that this guy took advantage of it and literally walked out and didn't look back. The Deputy marshal in charge of catching this man said this prisoner is "smarter than your average criminal." Considering the way he escaped he's smarter than the prison staff too.

...I bet this guy will be following all the gun control laws now that he's out.

...Whatever the true story behind FOX News not renewing Sarah Palin's contract is it really doesn't matter to me. The point is that she's gone and it is nice to see her star fading from view. Palin quickly became an inspiration to morons everywhere and the press couldn't stop talking about and covering her and eventually her family. Fortunately that was the beginning of the end. Her endless jabs at the President and her complaints with the media (except for FOX) were basically what she talked about so when her three year contract with them expired and they offered her a fraction of what she was making, that was that. She and her family may not be front page news anymore but you never know, they could bounce back. Her daughter Willow is 17 now and with a stroke of Palin luck she could get knocked up and there you go, another reality show in the making.

...I heard another funeral story last week although this one is not nearly as dramatic as the one I talked about last October when that guy from Brazil showed up at his own wake. There was this 88-year-old man who died recently that was such a fan of Whopper Jr's from Burger King that before going to the cemetery to his final resting place the funeral procession took a detour through the Burger Kind drive-thru and ordered forty of them and placed one on top of his casket before burial. I just hope that someone had the presence of mind to check the bag to make sure they got the order right and that they didn't give the guy a BK chicken sandwich instead.

...When it's time for someone like Lindsay Lohan to leave this world her procession will stop off at the closest liquor store instead of driving through a Burger King.

...Jim Nabors got married last week at the age of 82 to his long time companion that he was with for the past thirty-eight years. They had to fly to Seattle to have this done because the state of Washington legalized these type of marriages in December of last year. Sergeant Carter was right all along when he said Gomer didn't know which end was which.

...On Tuesday Apple will be releasing a 128GB version of their iPad tablet. This version will be exactly the same as the previous versions except this one will have double the amount of internal storage from the previous 64GB maximum. And it can be yours for only $929. This is amazing! This is revolutionary! Look what Apple is doing now. They're adding more storage space. It has never been done before! Nobody can do it like Apple!

...I can't wait to see if there will be any idiots camping out for this.

...Another company releasing a new version of their product this month is Sony. On the 20th of February in New York they are going to unveil the Playstation 4. The price of this new console has not been announced yet but if you think back to how much the PS3 was when it first came out (over $500) you can just imagine how much the price tag for this one is going to be. Console owners realize that eventually there is going to be newer versions of their systems. That's how it always has been. But basically what they want besides better graphics and gameplay is to be able to play the games that they have on the new system. Sadly the PS4 was not built with this in mind. The chipset and graphics chip in the new Playstation have been made by different companies that are in the Playstation 3 so this is going to make backward compatibility less likely to happen. I don't know how I'd feel about that if I were a Playstation 3 owner.

...When I read that there is going to be a new reality show coming in the summer called Top Hooker my mind imagined all sorts of interesting scenarios until I heard it was going to be a show about fishing.

...I really don't know how to react anymore when I read about these steroid scandals because I have become so accustomed to them. Can all the stories coming out of Miami be true? Are all these players named actually guilty? I believe that this Anthony Bosch person had better have his facts straight before the media got a hold of it. A number of players were mentioned and no one was surprised to learn that Alex Rodriguez's name was on this list of players. This guy has so much bad luck in his life that he may as well run half way out to meet it from now on. Nonetheless I do have some questions about this:

1.This report has in it as many as twenty major league players but as usual Rodriguez' name is mentioned first and the other players seem to be a side note in this. Believe me I'm not trying to defend Rodriguez here at all. I've had it with this guy as much as everyone else. But if there were that many players as the report said why only focus on one guy? Guys like Gio Gonzalez and Bartolo Colon have been virtually ignored here. What I am trying to say here is that every player on this list should be scrutinized the same no matter who they are but it's Rodriguez who gets the brunt of it because of who he is and that he's an easy target.

2. I don't give a you-know-what what happens to Rodriguez after this. Exactly what are the Yankees losing here if they are able to do the impossible and get rid of him? He's a .270 hitter who hasn't hit more than twenty home runs in a single season since 2010.

3. I don't get how the hell this stuff that these guys were buying were supposed to help them. Do you? And it's too bad for Rodriguez that this business closed down because he should get a partial refund because whatever he did purchase (or did not as he says) it sure as hell didn't help him in the past two seasons with the Yankees as he changed from a power hitter to someone that the pitchers don't even worry about anymore when he comes up to bat.

4. I wonder how the Toronto Blue Jays feel about this now that Melky Cabrera's name was brought up here and how surprised they were that Jose Bautista's name wasn't?

5. Nelson Cruz of the Rangers hasn't said a word yet about these allegations and he's been completely ignored here so far. It doesn't make him less guilty. It just means he hasn't found a lawyer yet.

...I get e-mails from Amazon.com all the time that are an attempt to peak my interest to buy the newest movie, game or book and the last one I got from them I had no trouble saying no to. Amazon let me know that the book Francona: The Red Sox Years was now available for purchase. I was as interested in this as a Kardashian would be in avoiding the spotlight.

...A truck in China that was carrying fireworks that was to be part of the celebration of the Lunar New Year exploded on an expressway bridge and caused part of the bridge to collapse. This unfortunately happens when people get careless and become unsafe around these type of explosives like throwing your cigarette out of a truck that's full of fireworks.

...Former Cub and Diamondback first baseman Mark Grace is going to jail for four months because of a second DUI arrest he got in a fifteen month span. Part of his sentence includes work-release jail time as well as three years of supervised probation. I know DUI's are very serious and I'm not trying to defend him here but when I see someone like Lindsay Lohan get away with what she's done over the past few years and nothing happens to her, why does this guy get four months?

...Some of Grace's work-release time will consist of him doing commentary for the Houston Astros this season. If that doesn't make you stop drinking nothing will.

...Finally, a R.I.P. to Patty Andrews who died last week at the age of 94. She was the last surviving member of the Andrews Sisters. They were a sister group whose harmonies entertained millions of servicemen during the second World War. If you ever want to catch them on film to see how good they were watch Buck Privates, an Abbott and Costello film from 1941 that they were in. They were part of an era that will be sorely missed.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-10

...Even though I had no ties to either team I must admit last week's Super Bowl was an exciting game. Usually I pull for the AFC in these things unless the Patriots are in it so I was happy that the Ravens won.

...Predictably my wife didn't care too much about the game. She thought the Puppy Bowl was more exciting.

...There was one question I had that I noticed that they did not bring up or cover and if they did I must have missed it. It was about that blackout that happened in the third quarter. What if they were not able to get the power back up and running in the stadium again for one reason or another. What would have happened and how would they have finished this game?

...As disappointed as the 49er fans ended up being, they had nothing on this poor 50 year old Canadian fan. This guy won a fantasy football contest where he beat out four million other fantasy players as he won tickets and transportation to New Orleans to see the game but as soon as he tried to go through U.S. customs the agents there brought up an arrest the man had when he was nineteen. Seems thirty years ago he was convicted for possession of two grams of marijuana that he was required to pay a fifty dollar fine for. At the same time illegal immigrants are allowed in this country every day provided if they promise to get jobs mowing lawns for rich people or working at car washes. And you wonder why the world views Americans as idiots when they read something like this?

...Last thing about the Super Bowl: One of the ads for the game had the two actresses from the TV show Two Broke Girls pole dancing because the game was on and an aid for an Idaho Congressman saw it and made a tweet saying he liked what he was seeing. This ended up getting him fired from his job because he made the mistake of making this comment when he was using his boss' account. If however the aid had made the same comment about a man he probably would not have been fired since they would have been worried about public backlash but since it was just a guy commenting on how good two girls looked they didn't have to think twice when they got rid of him.

...When will people realize that twitter is not a good idea?

...Former Yankee Nick Johnson retired from baseball after a ten year career. Johnson collected 723 hits and a .268 batting average and by an odd coincidence finished with the same amount of home runs as he had injuries, which was 95.

...Something from the NBA caught my interest last week and it certainly wasn't the games because that's never the case. Joakim Noah, who is a center for the Chicago Bulls and is currently injured and can not play was sitting on the bench watching the game when an NBA employee made him leave because what he was wearing was unacceptable by the league. Noah had on an expensive sweater while on the bench but NBA rules state that inactive players must wear a jacket if they are to sit on the bench during games. This just shows how much the actual game means when something like this is a news story.

...I felt really bad for Lindsey Vonn after she tore up her right knee and fractured her right leg during a competition in Austria. The U.S. ski team says these injuries will require surgery as well as a lengthy rehabilitation and it could last so long that she may miss her bid for the Olympics in 2014. I got a lot of respect for professionals in sports like this mainly because I can't see myself ever mustering up the courage to push myself off of a mountain to try and go as fast as I can until I get to the bottom.

...The more I think about it the more I believe that this sport should be left to the people that know how to ski and know how to do it well. There's a place near where I live that people go to ski and right now I really can't recall how many times that I've heard stories of broken legs or arms or something like that because someone zigged when they should have zagged. It may look nice on TV watching them zip down the hill at unbelievable speeds but for you to do the same? Probably not. I mean put yourself in Sonny Bono's shoes for the last few seconds of his life when he was on the slopes and he said to himself "where'd that tree come from"?

...Last Tuesday the Jacksonville Jaguars unveiled their new logo for next season and the team said that they were hoping that it would assist in sparking some life into the franchise. After a 2 - 14 season they should concentrate on getting new players instead of getting new artwork.

...Did you see on TV that over in England they dug up the remains of King Richard III from under a parking lot and scientists somehow reconstructed his face to show everyone what he must have looked like? Just watch, pretty soon there's going to be King Richard III t-shirts for sale.

...I have a new hero. A woman who works (well, worked) for a dollar store down in Georgia showed some unsupervised little brat that she was not there for him to annoy and harass. This little eight-year-old terror was running around the store throwing things and generally acting like the store was his personal playpen. Finally after throwing a cookie at the woman she had enough. She went after the kid and spanked him with her belt and by doing that she found herself unemployed before the day was out. The first thing that comes to mind is where were the kids parents when he was doing all this because apparently no one was watching this kid besides the clerk. My guess? Mom and Dad were in another part of the store while this was going on stealing as many items as they could. So now this woman is out of a job. But what a way to lose it.

...Country singer Mindy McCready is headed to rehab via a court order for alcohol and mental health issues because of her family's concern for her after the death of her boyfriend. This is not her first time in rehab and if she's lucky she'll get the same room she had the last time she was there. When informed about her situation Roger Clemens sent her his best wishes for a speedy recovery and also mailed her a DVD of the game where he recorded his 300th victory. Clemens said this was in case she had nothing better to do there and she could think of all the times they spent together hidden in a motel room sipping gin.

...What, you thought I was going to write something supportive about Mindy McCready?

...Every time you need a little smile or a laugh to brighten your day all you need to do is read a story that has something to do with a born-again Christian because those people are a laugh a minute and the joke's always on them. A Tennessee maintenance worker quit his job because he saw the number 666 printed on his W-2 tax form. This number is supposed to be associated with the devil and is known as the number of the beast. The company that this man formerly worked for explained that the number on the W-2 form was the number in which the tax documents were mailed and nothing else was meant by it. Human ignorance never ceases to entertain because to most of us the letters IRS are a hell of a lot scarier than the number 666.

...I wonder what this guy would do if he ever heard the Iron Maiden song The Number of the Beast blaring from one of his neighbors homes?

...Did anyone hear about that Red Sox prospect named Bryce Brentz? He was cleaning a gun at his home and it accidentally went off. The bullet went into his leg and came out the other side but luckily for him it did not hit any bones or muscles because that would have been a more serious injury. Had this guy been a Yankee prospect someone would have figured out a way to pin the blame on A-Rod.

...On Friday my area here in the far reaches of upstate New York received fifteen inches of snow as a gift from Old Man Winter. Trying to describe that much snow falling in one day to someone who has never lived in the snow belt is tough. Snowfalls can be made to look beautiful in the movies but for anyone who's had their car stuck in one or who's had to shovel their driveway three or four times in one day to keep up with it there is nothing beautiful about it. What was even worse was what happened to the New England states that same day. Boston got almost two feet of snow and some little town in Connecticut by the name of Milford was the unfortunate recipient of 38 inches of snow. I felt bad for the New England area after this happened because the digging out, the restoring of power,etc will be what they are doing this weekend. And to think, all it took was a major blizzard for me to feel bad for that part of the country. :)

[GoRedSox34]

Pitchers and catchers report tomorrow! :popcorn:

Edited February 10, 2013 by GoRedsox34

[Jim825]

When I went out to clear the driveway yesterday, we had 29.5 inches of snow, with snow drifts in some places that were up to my thighs. My car is under that mound in the background.:

It was not fun for the dogs, as our dachshunds have 4-inch legs.

The final score from this storm was Mother Nature 1, Dachshunds 0

[Yankee4Life]

I hope this was the extent of your problems Jim and that you didn't lose power too. That's a lot of snow to try and clean up at one time and I hope you had a lot of help getting rid of it so you can get to your car and have a place for those little ones to go out. Good luck!

[Jim825]

Luckily, it was a "dry" snow, so while it blew around and caused large drifts, it wasn't heavy enough to cause power outages. Most of the outages were along the coast.

Storms like this remind me how good of an investment my snowblower was. One of my daughters cleared off the cars with a push broom while I cleared off the driveway and cleared an area for the pups.

[Yankee4Life]

Then you made out pretty good there Jim. We had the heavy snow, you know the kind that is hard to pick up and easy to make snowballs with? That's what I ended up shoveling. Glad you had help with all of that! Have a good week.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-17

...Ok, we got Valentine's Day out of the way (don't get me started on that) and now this week we'll see the first real signs of spring as the players report to their respective camps and before we know it we'll be reading about the next Yankee pitcher who's going to have Tommy John surgery.

...About a year and a half ago a crocodile weighing one ton was caught in the Philippines and since then was being held in captivity and it eventually became a tourist attraction for the town. Last week it died and the entire town is in mourning because of it even though this crocodile was blamed for the deaths of several villagers over the years including the death of a child in 2009. You know something has to be wrong with these people if they're mourning something that ate some of their friends or family. The reptile was declared dead after being found floating on its back with a bloated stomach.Hopefully someone did a head count of all the people that lived there just to be sure no one was missing.

...You know what this kind of reminds me of? Remember in the movie King Kong when Kong was taken off the island and the villagers didn't know what to do after he was gone? Same thing here.

...It takes a lot of nerve, and then some Dept: Back in the early morning hours of New Year's Day a Washington, D.C. family noticed that their father was having trouble breathing and naturally being concerned, called for an ambulance. Help did not come until more than thirty minutes after the call and when it finally arrived at the scene the man had already died. The reason why it took so long for it to respond is on that night the D.C. ambulances were staffed at a low level because more than fifty district firefighters called in sick on what appeared to be a coordinated sick-out that night. Whatever the reasons were there's no overlooking that they were late and it cost someone's life. To add to the insult, weeks later this same family received a bill in the mail for $780 for an ambulance that arrived too late to do any bit of good. There is something seriously wrong with this picture. Even Dominos has a better policy.

...Last week Sarah Silverman's sister was arrested in Jerusalem with some other women because while they were praying they were wearing religious clothes that Orthodox Judaism reserves strictly for men. If Silverman's sister has half the foul mouth that her more famous sibling has she'll have no trouble leaving the country after this because Isreal will only be too happy to escort her to the airport just to get rid of her.

...The NFL is looking into widening the field sideline-to-sideline from 160 feet to 195 feet. These are the same dimensions that the Canadian Football League has because the belief is that a wider field would be safer because the league now has bigger and faster players then it did years ago. At least that's the reason behind it. My question immediately is how is this going to be safer? No matter where the sideline is someone is still going to get drilled there whether it is moved or not.

...Apple's hard at work on a hush-hush project that is a wristwatch-like device made out of curved glass that would operate on Apple's iOS platform. If this ever comes to pass you have to admit that no matter how you feel about this company you got to admit they are not stupid. Try to imagine how much they'll charge for this. $1,000? Maybe more? And don't forget the insurance you'll probably buy too because try to imagine yourself walking around with a piece of curved glass on your wrist and not worry about walking into something or falling down on it.

...For those of you who wanted to buy the new Atlanta Braves hat with the screaming Indian logo on it you can save your money because the Braves decided to scrap those plans due to people complaining about it being "racial" and you know when someone starts mentioning that word companies start backtracking faster than a tap dancer.

...When you hear about people moaning about Sports Illustrated magazine using minorities as "props" in photos for this year's Swimsuit issue it makes you wonder where their head is at because no one actually looks at a group of kids standing behind a model for example or someone on a bike or anything but the girl herself. The complaint is that the magazine is promoting racial stereotypes by using minorities as extras in the locales of the photo shoots. Never mind that the same people would point out in a heartbeat had S.I. brought along some Hollywood models to be in the background. Then they'd complain that the locals were not used and the reason for that would be racial. These photos are all about seeing some gorgeous girl wearing a hot looking bikini. End of story. Why everything these days has to be twisted and turned into a racial issue is really getting out of hand.

...Josh Hamilton reported to the Angels training camp almost twenty pounds lighter than he was a year ago. Hamilton credits his weight loss to God because he said that every night for over a month God woke him up out of a sound sleep and as he watched TV he watch a doctor talk about nutrition and how it makes you body feel and the right things to put in your body. Hamilton then took this as a sign to be more attentive to what he ate and in turn credited the Good Lord for waking him at night so he could do this. The real truth however is a lot less newsworthy. Hamilton's family had just purchased a new puppy and the dog kept on waking him up in the middle of the night to go outside and Hamilton couldn't get back to sleep after the dog was done.

...My first reaction when I read that a Red Sox trainer injected players with a pain killer for six seasons was great, let them go through some *&#^ for awhile! But then when I read further that Curt Schilling was among the whistle blowers I knew this was going to go nowhere. That guy would turn his own mother in on trumped up charges just as long as the cameras were on him.

...When Lady Gaga announced that she had to cancel some of her upcoming tour dates because she was hiding a show injury most of her critics rightly assumed she was talking about her singing voice, or lack of one. What really happened was that she is suffering from synovitis, which is a severe inflammation of the joints. She either got this from wearing two-foot heels all the time or falling on her nose.

...If they ever decided to do a remake of Mr.Ed she would be perfect for playing the lead.

...Every time the NRA comes out with another ad it makes me hate them even more.

...You ever notice when you have a pizza or something delivered to your house they always end up screwing something up with the order but if you go and pick it up from the same place you get everything that you asked for?

...On Saturday nights I watch a show called My Big Redneck Vacation because in my spare time I secretly enjoy laughing at rednecks. Sue me. These people go through so much Bud Light in one day that Budweiser should start making special deliveries right to their homes. Beer is their life. They also happen to be very hard to understand which is the reason that subtitles are displayed on the bottom of the screen. Not so much the women but the men talk like they have tobacco stuck in their mouth and when they try to speak all you get is grunting and mumbling with an actual word mixed in here and there to really throw you off. Besides knocking off all that beer the other thing that these people do just as well is eat. They were in Washington D.C. last week and some of them went to a burger joint so they could try their hand at a burger challenge that was there. To give you an idea what the size of this burger was I found a website where a fan at a Washington Wizards basketball game had three quarters to eat this thing. That is a burger and not a spare tire. The rednecks by the way ended up having the same result as this basketball fan did when faced with the burger as they both went down without putting up much of a fight.

...I have never been able to understand the attraction to these food challenges because eating that much at one time can not be good for your stomach let alone the rest of your body. Just last week a regular patron of Las Vegas' Heart Attack Grill died of -wait for it- a heart attack after a meal outside the restaurant while waiting for a bus. Their specialty is something called the "Quadruple Bypass Burger" that has 9,982 calories in it, which is enough to feed a family of four or enough for Prince Fielder to have on coast-to-coast flight.

...One of the gimmicks for this Heart Attack Grill is that if you are 350 pounds or over you get to eat free there. If these people ever put up one of these places near any Walmart in the country they'd be out of business in a week.

...Here I am feeling guilty when I have a Big Mac from McDonalds because I know it has nine ounces of fat in it.

...In what under cover drug agents say was one of the oddest places to find one, a mini meth lab was found in a porta-potty in the middle of an Oklahoma golf course. Maybe it was just their way of speeding up play by giving the golfers a jump start.

...Kate Gosselin has found another way to get back into the spotlight when she will be appearing on Celebrity Wife Swap with Kendra Wilkinson. This woman will do just about anything not to take care of her kids.

...LeAnn Rimes is suing her dentist because she is saying that his poor dental work is the reason her career has stalled. She states that his negligent treatment she received for a faulty crown placement caused her a lot of discomfort and therefore affected her ability to perform. Right. Because it's the dentist's fault that she hasn't had a hit in thirteen years.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-24

...The Florida python hunt wound down the other week and 68 of them were caught and killed by hunters in the month long challenge sponsored by the state. Fish and Wildlife officials said the main aim here was to heightening public awareness of these snakes and the problems that they have caused. I don't know about you but if I lived down there this would have been completely unnecessary because as soon as I found out that there was a snake problem like this I would have left the state so fast my shadow would be running to keep up with me.

...As I write this the thermometer outside says 25 degrees and my first reaction is to feel sorry for myself that I have to live in an area that gets this kind of weather. But lately I haven't because I've been thinking more and more about how it is in Florida. They say there may be as many as 100,000 of those snakes living down there and that doesn't even take into account how many alligators they have there, which they estimate to be around 1.3 million. So, no thanks, I'll stay right here. If I'm cold I'll go out and buy a warmer coat and a better pair of gloves. Better the devil you know than the devil you don't know.

...My sympathies go out to the family of Mindy McCready and her children. I understand she had to be a very troubled woman to do what she did but my sympathy and understanding does not extend to the point as to why she felt she had to kill her dog.

...Detroit is a city that is literally on its last legs and those legs are extremely shaky right now. Their unemployment rate is 18 percent which is more than twice the rate for the country as a whole and their murder rate is around 10 times the national average. This is why residents are leaving this city in record numbers and not looking back. The best selling item in Detroit right now is a one way bus ticket to anywhere. From a city that once boasted 1.8 million people as residents there are only 700,000 left now and 650,000 of them are convicted felons.

...Think about that the next time the cameras pan the stands during a Tiger game.

...There's a pizza shop owner down in Virginia Beach, Virginia that has started a promotion that's become very popular for him. Seems he's a big supporter for firearm rights and he is giving a 15 percent discount to anyone who brings a gun or concealed handgun permit into his place of business. Since the discount began 80 percent of his customers have come in with guns. Too bad for this guy that Michigan is so far away from Virginia because he could have made a killing if he had people from Detroit come there to place an order.

...Well this is interesting. Next year the Post Office is planning on releasing their own line of all-weather, all-season clothing apparel that includes headwear, footwear, coats and shirts and a jacket with iPod controls built into the sleeve. I'm kind of curious about this to see what this will look like. Hopefully this new line of clothing will not look too much like the real postal uniforms because none of us would want to be wearing this stuff and then be chased by a bunch of angry dogs.

...A Glens Falls, New York woman was arrested on five counts of endangering the welfare of a child because she hired two strippers to perform at her son's 16th birthday party. The mother invited several of her son's friends, both boys and girls but did not tell the parents of any of these kids that strippers were invited. Well, she won't be mother of the year after this but you got to admit she knows how to throw a party.

...Would anyone want to wager a bet that the people who complained about this were the girls?

...Poor Miley Cyrus. Someone's picking on her again. A photo of her smoking marijuana has surfaced and she is doing her best to convince everyone that it wasn't her and although she may be telling the truth here this train wreck would do anything for attention. If she didn't have her picture taken doing this she'd do something else. Personally I'm not buying it because any girl that gets a haircut like that has to be stoned.

...Folks down in Chile have a custom called the "War of the Tomato" where once a year they get together and throw tomatoes at each other for fun. This year over 7,000 people showed up and they pelted each other with over 44 tons of tomatoes. How perfect would this be if next year Alex Rodriguez finds himself right in the middle of all those flying tomatoes?

...It's official now. Sony's announced the new PS4 which will be released this upcoming holiday season. There's no word on the price yet and that right there should raise a red flag. When a company does not announce the cost of a new product that only means the price of it is going to be more expensive than anyone could have imagined. The new system will have improved graphical performance as well as being heavily dependent on social networking. Nothing's been confirmed by Sony as to if you can play your PS3 game collection on this and I have a feeling that if the PS4 is not backwards compatible a lot of PS3 owners won't be taking the plunge to buy this once it comes out this Christmas.

...A twenty-eight year old New York woman has become the first woman in history to register for an NFL regional scouting combine when she competes against college kickers in New Jersey and if she makes an impression there she can advance to Dallas in April on a super-regional combine. This is just great. Just because people saw Tim Tebow play football everyone now thinks they can do it. I don't know if she fully understands the job of a kicker because those guys can get leveled out there just like anyone else. I want to see what she does when some linebacker comes rushing in at her as he's trying to block a kick and lands right on her. Or during a kickoff when she's the last person that the kick returner has to get past on his way to the end zone? If there is one sport that women do not belong on the same field with men is it's football and it has nothing to do with discrimination. It has everything to do with safety because she'd get hurt pretty bad out there and that's something that nobody wants.

...How much you want to bet that after the NFL sends her home she gets a call to play in the Lingerie League?

...A little girl in a wheelchair traveling with her family to Disneyworld proved to be no match for the people at the TSA in St. Louis when the screening process rolled around. The TSA has a long reputation for pushing around and intimidating the elderly and frightening children and it's even worse for these people if they happen to be handicapped. Then it's like something snaps in these people and they don't stop until these poor travelers are completely humiliated, terrified or driven to tears. While they do have a right to check a wheelchair they also patted down the child until she began to cry and they refused to let her mother record what they were doing. The final insult came when the agents refused to return the little girl's stuffed animal, even though it had already been scanned. Keep in mind that these people make about $15 an hour and not one of them has ever caught a single terrorist but this one official did the next best thing by keeping a little girl's stuffed animal away from her.

...A Michigan hospital is being sued by one of its black nurses because they would not let her treat a newborn baby that was in the neonatal unit last fall. The hospital was only following the instructions of the family because the father of the baby requested that no black nurses were authorized to look after the infant. While it is easy to understand her frustration in the matter the hospital was really doing her a favor by keeping her away from this family and their beliefs. The hospital was in a no-win situation here because had they told the guy to stuff it -as they must have felt like saying- and assigned anyone to watch over the baby, they would have been sued by the father. They should tell him the next time he has a kid to try another hospital.

...I'm someone that can speak expertly about nurses because I have had more stays in hospitals than I care to look back and count. But believe me, it did not matter if the nurse I had was white or black or Spanish or Asian. Every single one of them took great care of me. Those women were wonderful and they made my stays as comfortable as they could every time I was there.

...For any of you who had Phil Hughes picked as the first guy to get hurt in the Yankee camp you are a winner.He has a bulging disc in his upper back which the Yankees say will sideline him for two weeks but knowing Hughes he'll milk this injury all the way to Labor Day.

...A.J. Burnett is going to be the starting pitcher for the Pirates on Opening Day against the Cubs in Pittsburgh. And yet people still act surprised when they find out the Pirates haven't had a winning record in twenty years.

...Red Sox fans with deep pockets can bid on the bloody sock worn by Curt Schilling during the 2004 World Series. Online bidding opened a few weeks back and right now it is up to $60,000. For that amount of money they should throw in the rest of the uniform too.

...Got my taxes done yesterday. Once again Uncle Sam let me know in their own special way that they haven't forgotten me. :sad:

[sabugo]

Something similar to the 'War of the Tomato' happens in Spain, in Buñol near Valencia. I think this one is bigger though. Didn't know about that one in Chile. And I don't think that would be the best place for A-Rod. Tomatoes are too soft.

And I changed my opinion on whether women should or could be in the same field as men after Ronda Rousey's performance last night. I mean, any brave men out there willing to fight her? One tough lady for sure. If that other woman wants to face those big dudes, let her have it.

Oh, you're not the only country with dumb people in charge of transportation. Just this week here in Portugal, a guy was forcibly removed from the train he was travelling in because he refused to pay for a ticket for his dog. Even the rules do state that dogs have to pay a regular ticket, I don't think it was necessary to have 5 cops manhandling the guy and terrifying the poor dog and everybody else who was watching this. Check it out if want, it's all on youtube.

While Hughes' injury might be a blessing, I'm not so sure about Grandy's broken arm. K's or not, his homers will be missed. All in all, I think the Yankees' 2013 season has the potential to be a spectacular fail. I only hope I'm wrong.

Burnett was actually decent last year. And that makes me sad in some sort of way. But I still feel for the Pirates fans. Last year was probably a fluke and he's probably due to keep sucking like he always has.

Doesn't a bloody violate some kind of health code?

I've been away from this topic for quite some time but I just want to say that the notion of Nick Swisher whining about being booed in the Yankee Stadium is just plain stupid. Dude...you just set some kind of record for bad performance, nobody did what you have done, ever! What did you expect??! (Sorry, I just had to say this)