Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning Updated To 7-28

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 8-18

...Former Cardinal player Jack Clark and his co-host got themselves fired last week from their radio show after they came out and accused former Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols and Tigers pitcher Justin Verlander of taking PED's. Pujols was so upset to learn about this that he threatened to sue both Clark and the radio station, thus prompting the firing. This is something to remember in case this comes up again sometime down the road because Clark has insisted his information he has on Pujols is accurate and if by some chance Pujols is tested positive in the future it will be Clark who will have a real basis for a lawsuit. What strikes me odd is how adamant Pujols has become about these charges now that he can't hit anything like he used to.

...The Yankees fined Alex Rodriguez almost 154 thousand dollars for missing a meeting with baseball officials last month and for seeking a second medical opinion on his quad injury without notifying the team first. This will really teach him and show him that the Yankees mean business by taking this much money away from someone who's making twenty-eight million in one year.

...I was talking to a friend of mine last week about our favorite subject, baseball. And inevitably the subject turned to Alex Rodriguez. He then asked me a hypothetical question that I had a very hard time answering and even when I gave him my answer I still wasn't sure if it was the right one. He said to me that he knew I was happy with the suspension he got and even if he was suspended for life I still wouldn't care. He then added that since he's appealing the decision he'll be playing for the rest of the year. Before I had a chance to nod my head and ask him what his point was that is when he laid the bomb. He went on to ask me how I would feel if Rodriguez started hitting like a madman and the Yankees went on a long winning streak which lead them to clinching a playoff spot and he even continued hitting in the post season until the Yankees won the World Series. Would you change your opinion about Alex Rodriguez if this happened?? I was about to reply and then I stopped. I hesitated and then realized I didn't know what to say. Another Yankee championship I thought. It's been four long years. But I can't stand that Rodriguez. I can't forget that. At the same time though he does lead them to this year's World Series title. I asked him how long he'd let me think about it because I was trying to get out of answering the question but he knew what I was trying to do so I finally told him that I would feel exactly the same about him and he told me I was full of it, which was not the first or last time someone's told me this. But then I got to thinking about this conversation as I was driving home and I started thinking to myself "come on you *&$#*, start hitting."

...If you are an iPhone user, mark down September 10th on your calendars because that is the date that Apple is supposed to introduce the latest version of the popular phone that a lot of people have because everyone else does. Some of the improvements this phone will have will be a faster processor, longer battery life, and an improved camera. In other words the iPhone will now have features that other phones have already had for a long time. Hurry and get in line. You have less than a month.

...While on the subject of phones, it was revealed last week that North Korea was coming out with their own smart phone which is called the Arirang. Because this phone is being manufactured there not much is know about it except that it runs Google's Android operating system, has a touchscreen and that it features a camera in the back of it. That's it. However, if we end up finding out down the line which patents were stolen to make this phone we would know more about it.

...If for some reason you ever wanted to run with the bulls like they do annually in Spain you are going to get the chance to do just that without traveling to Europe. Beginning August 24th in Richmond, Virginia the The Great Bull Run will be held in various cities around the country. If you can't make it to this one don't worry because there's going to be one in Atlanta in October and in Houston in December. What happened? Isn't NASCAR dumb enough anymore to keep these rednecks interested ? I'd like to see how fast one of them runs with one of those bulls behind them as they try to open up a can of beer.

...All joking aside you know this isn't going to end well. Injury lawyers must be salivating already.

...I like to think that I am generally a pretty patient person but there is one place that has my number every single time I'm there and they don't even know it. As a pet owner every once in awhile I have to take my dogs to the vet for their annual checkups and shots. What makes it so frustrating about being there is that you have to wait in line to give them your name and what you are there for. Then you have to take a seat while you wait for them to call your pet's name so you can go to an examining room. After the technician is done looking over the dog you have to wait for the vet to come in to repeat what the tech told you twenty minutes ago just in case you forgot. After you're done with the vet you have to go back out to the waiting room to wait for the receptionist to call your name this time instead of the dog's so you can pay the bill. It varies each time how long I have to wait but the average for me is close to ninety minutes. Last Tuesday when all this was happening to me I got out of there in fifty-seven minutes and for those people that is the equivalent of moving right along. How these people are able to accommodate all the scheduled appointments during the day is beyond me because I've never seen a group of people move so slow and look so busy at the same time.

...Here is something I don't understand. Oprah Winfrey is sorry that a media frenzy emerged after saying she experienced racism during a trip to Switzerland. What happened was while she was there she decided to go shopping and she went into a very expensive boutique and as she explained she asked to see a handbag that was priced at $38,000. She went on to say that the clerk told her she could not afford the purse because she said she was not dressed at the time like someone who could afford the steep price tag of the item because at the time she was dressed like a shopper at Walmart. Since she knows damn well that the media believes and eats up everything she says how could she say in all honesty that she didn't expect them to run with it and keep talking about it? If she really didn't want this to happen she would have never brought it up to begin with.

...International Left-Handers Day was held last week on August 13th and it was an event that was once again not recognized or celebrated in my home even though fifty percent of the residents living here are left handed. Even after all this time I have not figured out if it is more of an advantage or disadvantage to being left handed. Basically it is how you look at it. You sure as hell don't get any breaks if you want to purchase any left handed items. Years ago I bought a left handed keyboard online for $125 and it wasn't one of those special keyboards either. You could have got the same one for under $25 had it not been specially made. And buying a left handed mouse? I couldn't pull the trigger on that one because I'm not spending over seventy dollars for one. So there are disadvantages. On the other hand I have my computer set up to be left handed dominant. My mouse is programmed for a left handed user and it's on the left side of my left handed keyboard. Sometimes people whom I really don't want to use my computer ask me if they can use it and I immediately tell them sure, go right ahead. Ten minutes later they come downstairs and tell me they can't do anything because I have everything "the opposite of how it is supposed to be." I may not celebrate this day once a year but that doesn't mean I don't have my silent celebrations.

...You can always tell a good book because that is the one you keep returning to every so often. For me, To Kill a Mockingbird is that book.

...I was reading a Time magazine article last week that was about a study that said men wanted women to chip in when they went out on dates but were afraid to bring it up. The first thing I said to myself was what took so long for these people to have this study? When I was taking out the girl that is now my wife I paid for everything because I was told that was the right way to do things. So that's what I did and I would put some money away before a date and if I had to, go without a little after it. That's how it was when I was single and believe me there were times I wish it wasn't. One time she did actually say that she wanted to pick up the tab for our dinner but I told her that she didn't have to because I had it covered and it was no problem. Then she told me that the next time we went out she wanted the check and when the time came for the next dinner bill to be paid she must have had paralysis in the hands because I paid for that one too.

...Brother can you spare a meal, Dept: Last week two hungry Chicago men entered a restaurant and demanded food from the owner when they threatened him with a gun. The owner, who was concerned for the safety of his customers, told the men to come back in an hour because by that time the other people there will have already departed. Believe it or not that's what they did and when they returned sixty minutes later with their appetites in tow they were met by Chicago's finest, who were there waiting for them. So instead of running off with their stolen steak and potato dinners they were arrested and taken away. The food must have been really good there if they agreed to return. I can't wait for this to be talked about on "America's Dumbest Criminals".

...What the hell is in the water in India? If you are a female you are not safe there and it doesn't matter how old you are.

...I'd like to say thank you to the Texas Rangers, a team that I have never had a nice thing to say about until now. That's because they released Manny Ramirez last week from their AAA team in the Pacific Coast League after he hit .259 with three home runs and thirteen RBI in thirty games. With lousy numbers like this not even the Yankees are going to be stupid enough to sign him next.

...Mets pitcher LaTroy Hawkins took the mound against the Dodgers last Wednesday night without wearing a protective cup even though he knew the potential -and painful- risks of not wearing one. Sure enough that is what happened when a ground ball hit off the bat of Jerry Hairston hit him right in the spot where no baseball is ever meant to go. Down went Hawkins and by some miracle he was able to make the play and throw out Hairston and even was able to take two warm-up pitches after the play was over before being taken out of the game. It's a miracle to me that the guy was even able to make the play let alone take warm-up throws afterwards. I've heard of taking one for the team but this is ridiculous.

[dennisjames71]

Hey Y4L,

I enjoyed this week's "Random Thoughts" and what caught my eye was the information on "International Left-Handers Day". I can't believe I never had that marked on my calendar because I love to share the stories and the agonies of being a left-hander in a right-handed world. I'm sure you already know that we only comprise of a little over 11% of the population (for both male & female, female is only about 9%). I completely agree that it has always been aesthetically and financially unfair to us as left-handers. Going to school and sitting in those crappy right-hand desks and uselessness of spiral notebooks...I started writing backwards (starting on the backpage and going left) on those spiral notebooks when I was a Freshman in high school.

I happen to use my mouse on the right-hand side, but the cool thing is that I can adpetly use either hand in any configuration whenever I need to. However, I have the same great experience whenever I have friends over who are interested in my guitars; because they can never play around with them for long since they are either left-handed or the guitars are strung left-handed. Then they get mad at me when I pick up one of their righty guitars and I can actually play some chords and scales on them. LOL!

I know what you mean about the ridiculous prices for specialized "left-handed" products. In the late 1990s I stumbled on an actual "Left-Handers" shop near San Diego and just had to go inside. They had every conceivable lefty product I could think of and they even had a cafe where all of the coffe cups for sale were left-handed (you know, so that the image on the cup would be facing outward when you drink with your left-hand). They played music in the cafe and you could even buy select music CDs of artists who were left-handed (like you would be able to tell?). Anyway, I did purchase some useful items like a pair of left-handed scissors (still have them), spiral notebooks, and yes...a couple of those stupid lefty coffee mugs.

[Yankee4Life]

Hey Y4L,

I enjoyed this week's "Random Thoughts" and what caught my eye was the information on "International Left-Handers Day". I can't believe I never had that marked on my calendar because I love to share the stories and the agonies of being a left-hander in a right-handed world. I'm sure you already know that we only comprise of a little over 11% of the population (for both male & female, female is only about 9%). I completely agree that it has always been aesthetically and financially unfair to us as left-handers. Going to school and sitting in those crappy right-hand desks and uselessness of spiral notebooks...I started writing backwards (starting on the backpage and going left) on those spiral notebooks when I was a Freshman in high school.

Glad you liked this week's edition Dennis and thank you for responding in here too. It's always nice when people do.

I couldn't stand those spiral notebooks too and it was years after I was out of school when I finally found those kind of notebooks made for lefties.

I know what you mean about the ridiculous prices for specialized "left-handed" products. In the late 1990s I stumbled on an actual "Left-Handers" shop near San Diego and just had to go inside. They had every conceivable lefty product I could think of and they even had a cafe where all of the coffe cups for sale were left-handed (you know, so that the image on the cup would be facing outward when you drink with your left-hand). They played music in the cafe and you could even buy select music CDs of artists who were left-handed (like you would be able to tell?). Anyway, I did purchase some useful items like a pair of left-handed scissors (still have them), spiral notebooks, and yes...a couple of those stupid lefty coffee mugs.

I would have loved to go in that place to look around because I know I would have come out of there with a few goodies for myself. There's a left handed store in San Francisco that seems to sell a lot of stuff but you really got to take a close look at it. A lot of items are overpriced and a lot of them I wouldn't buy even if they sold them at Staples.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 8-25

...I'm going to start out this week's Random Thoughts by wishing a very happy birthday to Jim825, a long time member here and creator of many of popular Total Classic mods for Mvp Baseball. Jim's birthday is on the 25th of August so now you know what Jim825 means and you won't have to guess any more about that. It's doubtful that Jim will even see this birthday greeting because he's presently hard at work on a new season mod based on the 2017 season which should be completed before the All-Star game the following year. Dennis James is already half way done making the uniforms and Dylan Bradbury will be making the schedule just as soon as 2017 gets here. Have a good one Jim and thanks for everything!

...In a move that many women saw as the promise of more civil rights for themselves, a twenty-seven year old Iranian woman was elected to a political position earlier this summer. She received most of her votes from young voters in a country desperate for change. Her election was seen as a sign of hope for both women and young people and it also caught the religious conservatives from Iran completely off guard because they did not expect her to win the election in the first place. No matter though, they had a way out. In another example of the fine ethics of the ways of Islam, they disqualified her election because they thought she was too attractive to hold office saying they did not want a "catwalk model on the council." Unbelievable. Just when you think it isn't possible that these people can do anything else to make you laugh at the things they do they pull something like this to show you how wrong you are. I did have the chance to glance at a photo of this woman and from what I saw of her is that she's a very pretty dark-haired Iranian woman with a nice smile but other than that I couldn't tell if she could be mistaken for a model or not because she was wrapped up in a designer blanket called a burka from head to toe. Even if she didn't have that on I am not sure she would have been walking on any catwalk but then again that wasn't her intention. Imagine if she'd had looked like Eva Longoria. They would have stoned her.

...It only figures that the only team in the NFL that was in the red last year were the Detroit Lions. At least in that city they have plenty of company.

...For purists like myself, baseball is about to get even worse when next year rolls around because the video review process is going to be expanded. This is all we need. The reason for this is it is supposed to give the manager a tool that has not been available until now that in theory is supposed to reduce the number of incorrect calls made in games. This proposed change has to be voted on by the owners in November but that's just a formality if Commissioner Stuffed Shirt wants it done. I'm against it for two reasons. I don't think replay should be in baseball at all. It takes away something from the game. Secondly, how is this going to help speed up the game, or aren't they worrying about that too much anymore? A manager asks for a replay and it's going to take a few minutes to review it and make a decision. That's just great. I don't know how many options one team is going to get to challenge a call but you can bet your last dollar that the Yankees and Red Sox will use every one of them in the games they play. So what's that going to do? Add another fifteen minutes or so? One week ago they played a nine inning game on Sunday Night Baseball that took over four hours to play. Next year it is just going to get worse. Good thing they don't pay for hourly parking around that ballpark in Boston or else no one would be able to go.

...I am starting to get the strange feeling that Alex Rodriguez is being led around by his lawyers, who are guiding him on everything he says and whatever is leaked out of his "camp." Who knows why they call it that? Maybe it's just a polite term for people who are paid to believe you. It just seems that when one story about this guy is winding down another controversial one seems to pop up to keep him in the news. After 60 Minutes reported that he turned in Ryan Braun and teammate Francisco Cervelli (and if he did I wouldn't want to be him even with all his money) there's another story about him suing the Yankee team doctor for hiding his hip injury from him. That's where I think he's being led around by his lawyers. They are trying to sling as much mud as they can on Major League Baseball, the Yankees and now their team doctor with the hope that something sticks. Regrettably the mud is also going to land on Rodriguez too and he's never going to be able to get it off. But that won't be his lawyers problem because they're going to get paid no matter what and A-Rod is going to find out that he's the only member left in his camp.

...When I was a kid many years ago it was not hard at all to keep occupied during the two month summer vacation. Keep in mind that this was a time that no one walked around staring at their left hand non-stop because that's where they have their phone and it also was a time before laptops, console systems and 200 available stations on the TV to choose from. Despite not having these things that these days people can't live without, we did pretty well. And on the rare occasions that we were sitting down and doing nothing not one of us ever got it into our heads to shoot someone just because they were bored as three Oklahoma teens did last week when they shot and killed a twenty-two year old college baseball player from Australia named Christopher Lane, whose only crime was being in the wrong place at the wrong time. All three are minors and if these kids are not tried as adults for this then I would not want to be the person trying to explain to the Australians why.

...Tim Lincecum and Phil Hughes have one thing in common. Both are having terrible seasons in their walk years but more teams will be willing to take a chance on Lincecum if he can't re-sign with the Giants. Not even the Yankees want Hughes and he's soon going to find out that no one else does either.

...Derek Jeter will try to rejoin the Yankees for the third time this season when the Yanks open up a series against the Blue Jays in Toronto on Monday. I'm in a pool with a few people that I know and I have September 2nd as the next time he goes on the disabled list.

...Earlier this month DirectTv added a new channel called DogTV, a 24/7 network that is designed to help stimulate, entertain and relax dogs with shows that expose them to various movements, sounds and behavior patterns all from a dog’s point of view. Having this channel is an extra $4.99 on your satellite bill so that means if you want this you have to tell them you want it and the only people that are going to do this are the gullible ones who think this actually is going work. Well before I knew it my wife had that look on her face that she gets all the time when she pulls something nutty and our household that consists of two people and three dogs now has DogTV and so far the only ones that have watched or paid attention to it are the humans.

...A twenty-five year old woman from Liverpool, England dislocated her jaw recently after she tried to fit an entire triple-patty burger into her mouth all at once. I think you know where I'm going with this. After she went to the hospital to have her jaw reset she went back and ordered the same burger again because she said she was very surprised that this happened to her since she was used to putting bigger things than that in her mouth.

...Sorry.

...Last Tuesday President Obama and his family added another dog to their home, a happy little one-year-old female Portuguese Water Dog. These are the kind of stories where as soon as you get done hearing about them you never give it another thought and if it wasn't for a group of idiots a few days later this is how this story would have ended up for me. When a group of cat owners got wind that the President added another canine to the family they were furious. They felt that the First Family's second pet should have been a cat since 39% of American families have one cat or more and by not getting a cat he is cutting out a huge group of American voters. And they're serious. The only thing they neglected to say is that 97% of American households couldn't care one way or the other what pet the Obama's got.

...It would not have surprised me one bit if Sarah Palin had gone out and bought a cat immediately after this.

...I bought a Sony digital voice recorder off of Amazon last week and I'm still wondering why I did it.

...At his request Daisuke Matsuzaka was released from his contract last week from the Cleveland Indians and as soon as this happened I was worried that the Yankees would swoop in and grab him. I don't know if the Yankees had any interest in signing him or if they were just too slow but the Mets have him now and they are welcome to him and I'm sure the rest of the teams in the National League East will feel the same way before long.

...Very nice to hear that Vin Scully is returning to the Dodgers next year for his 65th year in the broadcast booth. He will be calling all home and road games against National League West opponents and for those of us who don't live out west I hope we can see a few of these games on the MLB Network because this guy is one of the best around.

...Can you imagine how fortunate Scully must feel doing a job that he loves for 65 years? Most of us will work our entire lives not knowing how good this must feel.

...Ben Affleck as the new Batman? What the hell, if they let Val Kilmer play it then they shouldn't complain about this guy.

...Since being suspended by baseball on July 22nd for sixty-five games, Ryan Braun has been as quiet as a TV with the mute button on. But last Thursday he released a statement to the media where he admitted taking performance-enhancing drugs during his NL MVP season of 2011. From what I read his acknowledgement of guilt left a lot to be desired and I think I understand why. ESPN had his whole statement on their website and as soon as I finished reading it I could tell that it was something that was run past his legal team before being released. He said a lot but said nothing. He admitted wrong doing but not all wrong doing. He was sorry, but not for everything. This is what I think bothered a lot of people. I think Braun would have won over a lot more people last Thursday if he parked himself in front of a microphone and issued a heartfelt apology without the aid of any lawyer and answered every question the writers threw at him. That would have been extremely hard but he would have left with everyone having a lot more respect for him as compared to how he really did it.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 9-1

...An Arizona Cardinals season ticket holder took his son to a pre-season game and at one point he decided he wanted to take a picture while he was there. Before he could take his picture he had to have his fifteen-year-old son hold his beer. He then gets his picture and takes his beer back. That's it. A short time later he was approached by undercover stadium police who informed him that they saw him serve alcohol to a minor and then they escorted them out of the stadium and handed the man a a citation for trespassing. How is this trespassing when they have season tickets and since when are there undercover stadium police and how come these same undercover cops are never around when a drunk is in your section wanting to start a fight with anyone around him? And cops wonder why they have so little respect from the public these days.

...That'll teach her Dept: During a flight from New York to Shanghai a first class passenger became so disruptive after drinking five glasses of wine that the flight was forced to divert to Anchorage where she was charged with interference of flight crew and members. Just because you fly first class doesn't mean you have any. This is what happens when you walk up and down the aisles yelling out profanities and climbing on seats. Now she gets to spend some quality time in Alaska. This really isn't a bad idea. Although there's no way this will ever happen every person who makes a pest out of themselves should be sent to the Last Frontier and be required to spend the entire winter there. Watch and see how fast stuff like this stops.

...Next month the Italian courts are going to re-try the case that involved Amanda Knox concerning the death of her British roommate. The high court in Italy overturned Knox's acquittal because of numerous examples of shortcomings, contradictions and incoherencies, which means they let her go two years ago and they want her back for another shot. There is as much of a chance for Knox to return to The Boot as there is for me to someday go up to David Ortiz and say hello buddy.

...If I were Knox I'd be so paranoid I wouldn't even walk into a Pizza Hut.

...Last weekend my wife's niece came up to visit and that by itself I could write a book about but no one would believe it. She came up here on Saturday morning and she and my wife ended up going to the State Fair in Syracuse leaving me behind which made all three of us happy, especially me. They know I can only go so far until my knees say no more and quit so they figured the best thing for me to do was stay behind. I made the obligatory squawk about it and then accepted my fate as I tried to hold back a smile. When they arrived home ten hours later they were beat, sore and tired. And that was just from all the people walking into them. I wish I could tell you how much money they spent but I was too afraid to ask but after looking at some of the stuff they brought back with them I had a good idea. They told me I wouldn't have lasted an hour there with that huge crowd and I told them they gave me too much credit for thinking I would last an hour. Later on my wife apologized for not having me tag along but she had the feeling I didn't mind too much anyways. Can't fool a woman.

...I wonder how proud Billy Ray Cyrus is of his daughter Miley after her little show at the MTV Video Music Awards?

...I like Australians, I really do. But sometimes the things they do I don't understand at all. Take last week for example. A birthday party was held near a crocodile-infested river in the Australian Outback and two guys who must have had too many Foster's Lager decided to go swimming in the Mary River, a river known worldwide to have the greatest saturation of adult saltwater crocodiles in the world. Why have a birthday party or any kind of party there? You can guess what happened next. As they were swimming back to shore a crocodile attacked one of the men and dragged him under the water. There was nothing anyone could do. The other guy made it to shore and may not get near another body of water again. Witnesses went on to say that moments after the attack the crocodile resurfaced, swimming upstream with the man's body still in his mouth. Talk about an image you'll never get out of your mind. Even if you jump in that water after having too much to drink there has to be something in the back of your mind that tells you that it isn't a good idea to splash around in water that a lot of crocodiles call home. It's like the KKK holding their next convention in Detroit. You know that's not going to end well.

....Speaking of Detroit there is a neighborhood there where the residents are being spooked by some oversized cat that they have seen walking around and when they called the Detroit police and Animal Control they got no response, which makes perfect sense since they're bankrupt. The cat in question is about four feet tall and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything and that includes dogs. I don't get it. These people live with crime every day and they are afraid of a cat? There's got to be someone in that neighborhood who's got a gun and is dying to use it.

...There's something about the health of pitchers these days that I can not understand. There's been so many advancements in physical training over the years but the fact is more pitchers today are getting seriously hurt as compared to the pitchers from decades ago. Matt Harvey's the latest one. He's been one of the bright stars for the Mets and has been having a great year. Now, just like that, the ligament that holds together his right elbow is partially torn and he's done for the season. There's more than a good chance he's going to need Tommy John surgery and if that's so we won't be seeing him next year. These injuries happen so often that people don't even take notice of them anymore. Some blame it on throwing too many pitches before they came up to the majors and some say they didn't throw enough pitches. Both sides make good arguments. One thing I can say for sure is that ever since baseball people have begun treating pitch counts as if they were the eleventh commandment these arm injuries will continue to occur.

...The New York Mets are having such a tough season they can't even get their promotions right. On the same day they were hosting the Phillies the team scheduled Marlon Byrd T-Shirt night at the ballpark in honor of Byrd since he's been having such a good season for them. Unfortunately that was the same day that they got involved in a trade with the Pirates and before Byrd had a chance to grab a shirt for himself he was on his way to Pittsburgh. At least they won't forget him in New York. This latest Mets souvenir will always be a reminder.

...I'm not laughing too much. This is the same team that swept the Yankees four straight in May and didn't break a sweat doing it.

...Haven't heard much from Scott Boras lately and almost as soon as that thought entered my mind his name pops up in the news. Boras is in favor of giving twelve year contracts to young players so the ballclub can have them locked up. Who's he kidding? He's not thinking of any ballclub here just like he's never had. This is less work for him to do if he can manage to get some team to fall for this. He's not going to be able to get a pitcher one of these contracts. Not with the way they get hurt. He's got more of a chance with position players but even then you got to crazy to consider it. It takes a special kind of player that you should lock up when they are young (Evan Longoria with Tampa Bay, Dustin Pedroia of Boston and Derek Jeter when he was given that ten year contract when he was in his twenties.) All three of these players are leaders and play hard every single day. You can't say that about every one of them.

...The city of Zurich, Switzerland, like most cities all around the world, has had a problem with open street prostitution but what they have done to try to curb it is, well, very Swiss-like. These people have converted nine buildings there into "sex drive-ins" where you drive in and park your car. Once you are there you place your order and instead of ordering a cheeseburger, fries and a coke, you order a girl. When she gets there you both agree on a price and then you can use your imagination as to what happens next. As soon as you are all done and she tells you that you are the best she's ever had you can get in your car and drive away. Zurich city officials explained that by having this it will take this kind of activity off the street and improving the security for the girls who are involved in this. Each of these drive-ins are guarded by security officers who are there to protect the girls in case anyone decides they want a free sample or who doesn't want to leave. The drive-ins are open daily from 7 p.m. to 5 a.m which explains the reason why so many office meetings in Zurich have all been scheduled to take place at night.

...The closest we have to driving up someplace and looking at an order and getting something from it is at a Sonic.

...Madden 25 was released last week for the PS3 and Xbox 360 so for all of you who feel you need to spend sixty dollars on a roster update your wait is over. Enjoy your game.

Hey, at least I know who the President is Dept: I got a call last week from some political volunteer who asked me for support for someone in the upcoming election for mayor in our city. Usually I do not listen to these people and I cut them off as soon as they catch their breath but this call happened to catch me while I was in the middle of reading a thread on this site, so I let him go on and I was only giving him half my attention. After he got through telling me how good this candidate was I asked him if he was a Democrat or Republican, mainly because I didn't know what to ask and secondly I didn't know. The volunteer told me he was a Democrat and that he also happened to be the current mayor of our city. Shows how much I know since I didn't even know there was a mayor's race this year.

...The Pirates aren't messing around this year. They're only a few wins away from their first winning season since 1992 and barring a complete collapse in this final month of the season that streak is going to end this year.And with the acquisition of Justin Morneau, who swings a good bat from the left side and plays a very good first base, Pittsburgh just became that much tougher to beat when October baseball comes around.

...It just hit me after writing this that it's the last month of the season. Why does it go by so fast?

...This weekend had all the makings of a perfect weekend. My wife was out of town and I had the entire house to myself. I didn't have any serious plans except to watch a ballgame in peace without having someone in the room talking about everything but the game. That's all I really had planned but on Friday night I got sick and had a fever of 102.2 degrees and while I was able to watch the game on Saturday I really didn't because I kept nodding off. Of all the weekends to get sick. Just my luck.

...Here's hoping that your Labor Day weekend is the opposite of mine! Have a good one.

[philthepat]

...I like Australians, I really do. But sometimes the things they do I don't understand at all. Take last week for example. A birthday party was held near a crocodile-infested river in the Australian Outback and two guys who must have had too many Foster's Lager decided to go swimming in the Mary River, a river known worldwide to have the greatest saturation of adult saltwater crocodiles in the world. Why have a birthday party or any kind of party there? You can guess what happened next. As they were swimming back to shore a crocodile attacked one of the men and dragged him under the water. There was nothing anyone could do. The other guy made it to shore and may not get near another body of water again. Witnesses went on to say that moments after the attack the crocodile resurfaced, swimming upstream with the man's body still in his mouth. Talk about an image you'll never get out of your mind. Even if you jump in that water after having too much to drink there has to be something in the back of your mind that tells you that it isn't a good idea to splash around in water that a lot of crocodiles call home. It's like the KKK holding their next convention in Detroit. You know that's not going to end well.

Dear god thats crazy... what a way to go..

[dennisjames71]

...An Arizona Cardinals season ticket holder took his son to a pre-season game and at one point he decided he wanted to take a picture while he was there. Before he could take his picture he had to have his fifteen-year-old son hold his beer. He then gets his picture and takes his beer back. That's it. A short time later he was approached by undercover stadium police who informed him that they saw him serve alcohol to a minor and then they escorted them out of the stadium and handed the man a a citation for trespassing. How is this trespassing when they have season tickets and since when are there undercover stadium police and how come these same undercover cops are never around when a drunk is in your section wanting to start a fight with anyone around him? And cops wonder why they have so little respect from the public these days.

I would fight this nonsense…I would explain in court that they need to provide proof that he was actually “serving” alcohol to a minor and that they definitely need to explain how the hell the man was ‘trespassing’ by being a ticket holder/season ticket holder. Undercover stadium police…what a joke. You’re right where are those idiots when there are drunken mini-riots in the stands at an NFL game. There’s probably a reason these losers (stadium police) are actively working an Arizona Cardinals game in posh Glendale, AZ. They would be running for the hills if they were assigned a L.A. Raiders games at the Coliseum in the late 1980’s <or hell, any Raiders/Chargers game>

...I wonder how proud Billy Ray Cyrus is of his daughter Miley after her little show at the MTV Video Music Awards?

...I like Australians, I really do. But sometimes the things they do I don't understand at all. Take last week for example. A birthday party was held near a crocodile-infested river in the Australian Outback and two guys who must have had too many Foster's Lager decided to go swimming in the Mary River, a river known worldwide to have the greatest saturation of adult saltwater crocodiles in the world. Why have a birthday party or any kind of party there? You can guess what happened next.

The cat in question is about four feet tall and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything and that includes dogs. I don't get it. These people live with crime every day and they are afraid of a cat? There's got to be someone in that neighborhood who's got a gun and is dying to use it.

Hmmm…apparently someone took your advice Y4L… I guess the cat was actually only about 2 feet tall. I love how people exaggerate details.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/27/detroit-big-cat-roaming/2706217/

...There's something about the health of pitchers these days that I can not understand. There's been so many advancements in physical training over the years but the fact is more pitchers today are getting seriously hurt as compared to the pitchers from decades ago.

You know, I’ve been thinking the same thing lately…and it’s not only with baseball pitchers, but with athletes in general. How in the world are these guys getting hurt seemingly far more easy than in years past? With the advances in training technology and sports-rehab clinics; today’s athlete is bigger, faster, and stronger…I just don’t understand how so many of them are doing on the DL (or worse), especially in a non-contact position like Pitcher. Even guys like TE Dustin Keller on the Miami Dolphins got tore up on a seemingly normal looking tackle on a missed catch during a pre-season game. The guy looks like he’s in superb shape, but now he’s done for the year.

...The city of Zurich, Switzerland, like most cities all around the world, has had a problem with open street prostitution but what they have done to try to curb it is, well, very Swiss-like. These people have converted nine buildings there into "sex drive-ins" where you drive in and park your car. Once you are there you place your order and instead of ordering a cheeseburger, fries and a coke, you order a girl.

Ok, not to be vulgar or juvenile here; but in these “girls-of-the evening” drive-thrus…I have to ask, you know how when you sometimes order food from a drive-thru and they ask “Will you be eating in your car?”…well….are you supposed to consummate the act while in your car? Or do you get to take the lady to a place of your choice? Also, if you are required to engage while in the vehicle…do you get a discount in your car is smaller/not enough room and all that? I was also going to ask if these places take on the names of other famous drive-thrus in the world like one of my favorites like “In-n-Out”(Burgers) here in California, but maybe I wont.

[Yankee4Life]

...An Arizona Cardinals season ticket holder took his son to a pre-season game and at one point he decided he wanted to take a picture while he was there. Before he could take his picture he had to have his fifteen-year-old son hold his beer. He then gets his picture and takes his beer back. That's it. A short time later he was approached by undercover stadium police who informed him that they saw him serve alcohol to a minor and then they escorted them out of the stadium and handed the man a a citation for trespassing. How is this trespassing when they have season tickets and since when are there undercover stadium police and how come these same undercover cops are never around when a drunk is in your section wanting to start a fight with anyone around him? And cops wonder why they have so little respect from the public these days.

I would fight this nonsense…I would explain in court that they need to provide proof that he was actually “serving” alcohol to a minor and that they definitely need to explain how the hell the man was ‘trespassing’ by being a ticket holder/season ticket holder. Undercover stadium police…what a joke. You’re right where are those idiots when there are drunken mini-riots in the stands at an NFL game. There’s probably a reason these losers (stadium police) are actively working an Arizona Cardinals game in posh Glendale, AZ. They would be running for the hills if they were assigned a L.A. Raiders games at the Coliseum in the late 1980’s <or hell, any Raiders/Chargers game>

I think this guy has a case. It sounds like these guys just enjoyed pushing someone around. The trouble with stories like this is you never know how they end up.

As for going to an Oakland-San Diego game the closest I want to be to that is near my TV, 3,000 miles away.

...I wonder how proud Billy Ray Cyrus is of his daughter Miley after her little show at the MTV Video Music Awards?

As it turned out he said he was proud of her so we can expect more of the same very soon. What a pig.

...I like Australians, I really do. But sometimes the things they do I don't understand at all. Take last week for example. A birthday party was held near a crocodile-infested river in the Australian Outback and two guys who must have had too many Foster's Lager decided to go swimming in the Mary River, a river known worldwide to have the greatest saturation of adult saltwater crocodiles in the world. Why have a birthday party or any kind of party there? You can guess what happened next.

God I hope he didn't turn this on.

The cat in question is about four feet tall and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything and that includes dogs. I don't get it. These people live with crime every day and they are afraid of a cat? There's got to be someone in that neighborhood who's got a gun and is dying to use it.

Hmmm…apparently someone took your advice Y4L… I guess the cat was actually only about 2 feet tall. I love how people exaggerate details.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/08/27/detroit-big-cat-roaming/2706217/

It's too bad. I think this was done out of fear more than anything else.

...There's something about the health of pitchers these days that I can not understand. There's been so many advancements in physical training over the years but the fact is more pitchers today are getting seriously hurt as compared to the pitchers from decades ago.

You know, I’ve been thinking the same thing lately…and it’s not only with baseball pitchers, but with athletes in general. How in the world are these guys getting hurt seemingly far more easy than in years past? With the advances in training technology and sports-rehab clinics; today’s athlete is bigger, faster, and stronger…I just don’t understand how so many of them are doing on the DL (or worse), especially in a non-contact position like Pitcher. Even guys like TE Dustin Keller on the Miami Dolphins got tore up on a seemingly normal looking tackle on a missed catch during a pre-season game. The guy looks like he’s in superb shape, but now he’s done for the year.

Exactly my point. Pitchers (and hell, I may as well include all the players) didn't have any individual training methods like they do now and like you said rehab clinics if and when they get hurt. It makes no sense. Take guys like Whitey Ford and Don Newcombe for example. A finesse pitcher and a power pitcher. Did these guys ever miss a good chunk of time due to injury? And you can think of many others like this. These guys pitched more innings and were hurt a lot less than these pampered pitchers today. Maybe that's part of the problem.

...The city of Zurich, Switzerland, like most cities all around the world, has had a problem with open street prostitution but what they have done to try to curb it is, well, very Swiss-like. These people have converted nine buildings there into "sex drive-ins" where you drive in and park your car. Once you are there you place your order and instead of ordering a cheeseburger, fries and a coke, you order a girl.

Ok, not to be vulgar or juvenile here; but in these “girls-of-the evening” drive-thrus…I have to ask, you know how when you sometimes order food from a drive-thru and they ask “Will you be eating in your car?”…well….are you supposed to consummate the act while in your car? Or do you get to take the lady to a place of your choice? Also, if you are required to engage while in the vehicle…do you get a discount in your car is smaller/not enough room and all that? I was also going to ask if these places take on the names of other famous drive-thrus in the world like one of my favorites like “In-n-Out”(Burgers) here in California, but maybe I wont.

No, you were not supposed to do it in the car. The little drive-in had a place for you to park your vehicle and there was a bed provided there too. So you do wham bam thank you ma'am and leave so the next car can come in and do the same.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 9-8

...It's that time again that all you die-hard NFL fans have been waiting for ever since the Super Bowl ended last February. This will be the first season in four years that I did not have the NFL Sunday Ticket and I know I am going to be missing it even before the first have is over in the Raiders-Colts game.

...I was asked again if I wanted to be in a NFL fantasy league. They never learn. I told them I'd get back to them in December.

...Washington manager Davey Johnson was supposed to have a talk with Bryce Harper, his twenty year-old left fielder about his Robinson Cano imitation when he jogged down the first base line in a close game against the Mets last week in a game that the Nationals lost by one run. I don't know how much Harper actually listened to what his manager had to say since Johnson's retiring at the end of the year. It's my guess that he did his best bobblehead impression and nodded his head while he was talking. Harper's a good player and I can't take that away from him but most of the time it seems as if he's read too much of his press clippings and they've all gone to his head. The fact is Harper would not have got near the Rookie of the Year in 2012 if he played in the American League.

...Last week Justin Bieber was attacked at a Toronto nightclub by another patron there who must have heard one too many of his songs and just snapped. Security immediately rushed in to get the man off of Bieber and he was then kicked out of the club and the police were not called. Before departing for the night the owner of the nightclub caught up with Bieber's attacker and shook his hand and gave him two box seat tickets to a Blue Jays game. Bieber's hated up in his native Canada almost as much as he's hated here.

...There are people out there who are not happy unless they are complaining about something out there that they perceive is racist or sexist or something along that line. The Human Rights Watch group that is based in New York are a good example of these kind of people. They got wind that the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand released an ad that promoted their new "Charcoal Donut" that showed a smiling woman with blackface makeup and bright pink lipstick holding up a bitten black doughnut. That's when the you-know-what hit the fan. They complained that the Thailand Dunkin' Donuts franchises- who operate independently from the American franchises-should withdraw this ad, publicly apologize to those it's offended and ensure this never happens again. The trouble with that is nobody in Thailand was offended and the only ones that were happened to be right here in this country. Now whether you believe this is racist or not is entirely your opinion. We know damn well Dunkin' Donuts wouldn't have this same ad in the U.S. because these people would have a stroke. What I don't like is that we have the nerve to tell another country to remove an ad because it offends people here. How would we respond if another country didn't like some advertisement that we had here and told us to get rid of it? Maybe we should try minding our own business and stop telling people in other countries what to do.

...This almost reminds me of something that happened in the 80's. There was a Wendy's commercial that mocked the dull, drab life of people in Russia. They had some woman modeling day wear, evening wear and swim wear but the joke was she wore the same clothes each time she walked out. It was hilarious and when the Russians saw it they were upset and they felt that they were being made fun of. They wanted the commercial taken off the air but Wendy's politely said no way and that was that. Eventually Wendy's came up with other ideas and the commercial was replaced and life went on. When the finger is pointing at us we stubbornly refuse.

And here is the youtube video. See for yourself.

...Speaking of Dunkin' Donuts, that is what was on my mind last Tuesday morning as I left my house. I went there to get a cup of coffee and not for the Charcoal Donut (just in case they had any) and what a mistake that was. I go there a lot to get coffee because I think they have one of the best coffees I have ever had but I don't care for the donuts which is fine because I don't eat donuts anyway. Halfway there I see it was the first day of school and wherever I looked there was a bunch of yellow buses with their flashers on and I was kicking myself for not remembering that it was the return to classes. And what made matters worse was I drove past an elementary school where anxious mothers were standing around watching their kid go to school for the first time. It was a mess. So what was usually a ten minute round trip for me turned into twenty-five and when I got home I didn't leave the house for the rest of the day. There's a point to this little tale so bare with me. I was home all last weekend alone because my wife was out of town and when that happens that is cause for a celebration. Ask any married man and they'll know what I mean. Well, I wanted to fix our Keurig coffee machine so I can start using it again and since I was all by myself I would be able to work on it in peace because when she's home she doesn't let me work on anything because she says I end up making it worse. That's not exactly true but it's pretty close. But I didn't get near the thing because while she was gone I had a fever of 102 and I couldn't do anything. Luckily by Saturday afternoon the fever broke and instead of attempting to fix the coffee machine I was trying to beat the 1929 Philadelphia Athletics with Lefty Grove on the mound with the 1964 Kansas City Athletics. Four times I tried and four times I failed. By the time I quit the coffee machine went untouched. Somehow being caught in that traffic jam was karma getting back at me. I learned my lesson.

...Nokia is the latest company to be swooped up by Microsoft. Who can blame them? If someone wanted to buy my company for 7.2 billion dollars I would say yes too.

...If there isn't more pressure for kids these days to make it through school, now they have something else to think about. Schools in nineteen states are measuring their students in annual weigh-in's and then reports are sent home telling parents whether their child's body mass index is healthy or dangerous. The schools say the reason for this is to help combat childhood obesity but many parents and kids do not like this and understandably so. This is all a kid needs that gets one of these letters telling him or her that they are fat. It just gives other kids another weapon to use to bully them. If students have to go through these annual weigh-in's then they should make the teachers do the same thing. It's amazing. Schools do everything but educate now.

...There's a twenty-one year old woman from Poland who has announced that she wants to have sex with more than 100,000 men from every major city in the world. She says she only wants to do this on weekends which makes sense because during the week she'll be flying from city to city around the world. I'd love to know how many frequent flyer miles she builds up when she's done with this. She's already done it 284 times and so far there are no book or movie deals for her but there's still time for that to happen since she hasn't landed in the States yet. It was estimated that it would take her twenty years to reach her goal of 100,000. It's always nice to see someone so young have such lofty goals.

...Dennis Rodman went back to North Korea last week. Maybe this time they won't let him leave.

...Joe Girardi finally removed Phil Hughes from the Yankees starting rotation explaining that it has been an "up-and-down year" for him. I must have had my head turned for a moment when things were looking up for him.

...The Pittsburgh Pirates are finally going to have a winning year this year as they won their 81st game last week. But then they hit a wall and haven't won since. It's like they got dizzy from being so high up and now have lost their last three games. Good luck to them the rest of the way. Why not? I just got done watching the Yankees lose three straight to you-know-who and while I try to brush it off a knot is being twisted in my insides.

...I admire people that can go out and do things that I couldn't dream of doing. Take for instance Diana Nyad who swam from Cuba to Florida in 53 hours and she swam the entire way without a shark cage. It's not that I know how to swim it's just that I do it in a pool where I always know where the sides are. Big difference. The only thing I'm concerned about now is a bunch of Cubans trying to copycat her figuring if she could do it so could they. Also those guys down in Mississippi who caught that 727 pound alligator. I couldn't get near one even if it were dead and these guys wrestled with it for hours. I have a long standing policy of not getting near anything that can eat me and that includes sharks, alligators and crocodiles. So far it's worked out well.

...When I read that Jose Bautista would be missing the rest of the season I thought that something happened to his wrist again since it made me think of Mark Teixeira who is making 23 million dollars this year doing nothing. This time Bautista has something called a femur bone bruise and I wish him well and I hope he gets well for next year. I have to remember what this injury is because some Yankee will probably get it next year.

...The Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and the city of Anaheim renegotiated a new lease deal that will allow the team to stay in Anaheim through the 2019 season. As part of this new deal the Angels are free to drop the "of Anaheim" from their name and will go back to being the Los Angeles Angels. Unfortunately no matter what name they want to go by they are still stuck with Albert Pujols and Josh Hamilton.

...I really like Joe Maddon, manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. This guy recently held a party near his Long Beach, California home and he announced that anyone who came into a sports bar that he was at wearing Rays gear they would get a free beer. He called it a "Win or Weep" party because his team was going through a five game losing streak and they've been playing poorly at the worst time of the year. Nice way to loosen up the team. It goes without saying that this would never work in New York. Someone would get plastered and then they'd punch Alex Rodriguez.

...The Playstation 4 will be released on November 15th. The XBox One will be released on November 22nd. Black Friday shopping is going to be crazy enough as it is. Can you imagine how much worse it's going to be with these two items on the market? And the reason why I brought this up is that this is only a little more than two months away. Baseball will be a memory. Football, hockey and basketball will have taken over. Time flies.

...Two twenty-five year old men from Philadelphia were in Chicago recently to see their beloved Phillies play against the Cubs and, well, one thing lead to another as one of them looked at the other and an idea formed in their head that they were going to break into Wrigley Field and steal the ivy right from under them. The idea proved to be 10% foolish, 10% stupid and 80% Budweiser. At 3:45 am on September 2nd they snuck into the Friendly Confines and were soon caught by team security while they were on the field and were taken away by Chicago's finest, proving again that Wrigley's confines are not so friendly all of the time. They did not come away with any ivy but will have to return to Chicago at the end of the month for a court date, which is hardly the next best thing.

...McDonald's is revamping their Dollar Menu right now in selected areas of the country that includes items priced at five dollars. Confused? After all, this is the dollar menu that we're talking about. They're getting around it by calling it the "Dollar Menu & More" and there's a good chance this will be an all-over deal nationwide by the end of the year. This people can do what they want as far as I'm concerned since I just go there occasionally for the coffee while avoiding the hamburgers. But still I have to wonder what kind of idiot thought up the idea of putting a five dollar item on the dollar menu? What's worse is that most people are going to accept this without question.

...Random Thoughts will be delayed next Sunday because I will be going out of town to see the in-laws. It's a lousy job and I have to do it.

...Come on Raiders...please?

[GoRedSox34]

Win.

[dennisjames71]

The Human Rights Watch group that is based in New York are a good example of these kind of people. They got wind that the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand released an ad that promoted their new "Charcoal Donut" that showed a smiling woman with blackface makeup and bright pink lipstick holding up a bitten black doughnut.

Yes, I read and researched this utter nonsense a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, and especially in this country, everyone feels the innate need to be offended; and to make matters far worse, they want to be compensated for “being offended” in the form of public apologies, money, or some other manner in which the offended can pound their chests and be viewed as “right” while the alleged, offensive group is ridiculed and deemed “evil and wrong”. This fringe, so-called, “Human Rights” group thankfully represents only a small faction of idiots that want to read far too much into a harmless ad. The old adage applies to this situation in particular: “If you want to see something (offensive), you’ll certainly find it if you look long enough.” I lump these morons into the same category of people who sense conspiracy in virtually every single aspect of life.

First of all, regarding the ad in question, this is NOT blackface make-up, nor is the young-lady “made-up” to portray blackface. She is “photoshopped” painted entirely in black (a la the charcoal color), her hair is styled to represent smoke, and key elements of her face contain the primary colors of the brand (pink for the lips, and orange for the eyeshadow). From a graphic arts/marketing standpoint, I think the ad is a winner; it’s very clever, creative and intriguing to the point that I am so curious to how a charcoal donut tastes, I would buy one in a New York minute.

Oh, and here's one of the versions of this horribly offensive ad:

Also, there have been numerous African-Americans who were asked about the “blackface” connotations of the ad and the vast majority answered that “that is not blackface, it’s just a woman painted black <along with every other item in the ad>”. It’s also funny to read some of the comments from Great Britain concerning the “controversy” of the ad…my favorite one was “Yes, the United States, the same country who ‘sees’ Hitler in a JCPenny teapot and the Virgin Mary in various food items, beverages, and trees.”

http://business.time.com/2013/05/29/jcpenneys-hitler-tea-kettle-sells-out-online/

...There's a twenty-one year old woman from Poland who has announced that she wants to have sex with more than 100,000 men from every major city in the world.

Ummm, I don’t know where to begin, but if you were one of the guys who decided to “engage” in this endeavor…how would you like to be the 90,000^th guy or hell, the 100^th guy in the chain? I think I just threw up in my mouth.

...I really like Joe Maddon, manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. This guy recently held a party near his Long Beach, California home and he announced that anyone who came into a sports bar that he was at wearing Rays gear they would get a free beer. He called it a "Win or Weep" party because his team was going through a five game losing streak and they've been playing poorly at the worst time of the year. Nice way to loosen up the team.

I agree…there are so many reason to love this guy and hands down, Maddon is the best manager in the game (IMO) and I would imagine he’s a blast to play for. The man just “gets it” and understands today’s players.

[Yankee4Life]

...There's a twenty-one year old woman from Poland who has announced that she wants to have sex with more than 100,000 men from every major city in the world.

Ummm, I don’t know where to begin, but if you were one of the guys who decided to “engage” in this endeavor…how would you like to be the 90,000^th guy or hell, the 100^th guy in the chain? I think I just threw up in my mouth.

...I really like Joe Maddon, manager of the Tampa Bay Rays. This guy recently held a party near his Long Beach, California home and he announced that anyone who came into a sports bar that he was at wearing Rays gear they would get a free beer. He called it a "Win or Weep" party because his team was going through a five game losing streak and they've been playing poorly at the worst time of the year. Nice way to loosen up the team.

I agree…there are so many reason to love this guy and hands down, Maddon is the best manager in the game (IMO) and I would imagine he’s a blast to play for. The man just “gets it” and understands today’s players.

Dennis,

The other part of your post I have to respond to separately since I don't know where to begin. Let's just say that I agree with everything you said.

As far as that Polish girl goes the only way she's going to reach that number is if she keeps giving it away. I debated with myself if I should post a picture of her in this thread but I decided not to. However I did find an article in the New York Daily News that has two pictures of her, and both of them are terrible. One glance at her and you'll see why I didn't want her photo in this thread.

As for Joe Maddon, he's a class act and he does a hell of a job. That's not saying I have anything against Joe Girardi because what he has done this year by keeping that <swear word here> team close to a playoff spot has been admirable. And he's done it all without the services of Captain Twenty Million at shortstop. But Maddon wouldn't make it in New York because there you have to treat losing streaks like they're the end of the world and Maddon isn't like that.

[dennisjames71]

HA! HA! Yeah, regarding the Polish girl...she's not the absolute worst thing I've ever seen (in the first photo); but she's really nowhere passable for me. And remember, she's probably mega-dolled up in that first photo (make-up, hair done nice, etc) so that's not how she looks like on any given day. I think the second photo begins to glean the reality of the situation. Survey says:

Yes, I agree with your points about Maddon...he's an excellent communicator, he's not bi-polar about the winning/losing streaks that occur in a season, and he's strikes a great balance between being laid-back enough, yet he has definite control of the ship. I agree that he would not be a good fit at all for any of the New York teams, just because of the social climate as you mentioned.

[Yankee4Life]

The Human Rights Watch group that is based in New York are a good example of these kind of people. They got wind that the Dunkin' Donuts franchise in Thailand released an ad that promoted their new "Charcoal Donut" that showed a smiling woman with blackface makeup and bright pink lipstick holding up a bitten black doughnut.

Yes, I read and researched this utter nonsense a couple of weeks back. Unfortunately, and especially in this country, everyone feels the innate need to be offended; and to make matters far worse, they want to be compensated for “being offended” in the form of public apologies, money, or some other manner in which the offended can pound their chests and be viewed as “right” while the alleged, offensive group is ridiculed and deemed “evil and wrong”. This fringe, so-called, “Human Rights” group thankfully represents only a small faction of idiots that want to read far too much into a harmless ad. The old adage applies to this situation in particular: “If you want to see something (offensive), you’ll certainly find it if you look long enough.” I lump these morons into the same category of people who sense conspiracy in virtually every single aspect of life.

First of all, regarding the ad in question, this is NOT blackface make-up, nor is the young-lady “made-up” to portray blackface. She is “photoshopped” painted entirely in black (a la the charcoal color), her hair is styled to represent smoke, and key elements of her face contain the primary colors of the brand (pink for the lips, and orange for the eyeshadow). From a graphic arts/marketing standpoint, I think the ad is a winner; it’s very clever, creative and intriguing to the point that I am so curious to how a charcoal donut tastes, I would buy one in a New York minute.

Oh, and here's one of the versions of this horribly offensive ad:

I agree Dennis. It's almost like these people are standing up and pointing out to everyone what they think is offensive and they get a smug satisfaction out of pointing the finger at someone. I compare this to that annoying kid in school who would always seem to tell the teacher what the other kids were doing or saying when their back was turned or when they were out of the room. They lived for doing this kind of stuff and so do these kind of people who are now adults and who turn over every rock to see if something offends them.

Now that you pointed out those things in that photo I have to believe that the people who complained about this also saw the same things in the picture. Sure it's photoshopped. You can't get makeup looking that perfect on a face. That entire ad was about selling that new donut and nothing else. But for those people life is no fun unless you are stirring something up.

Let me give you an example of something that has nothing to do with this ad but in a way it does. Back in the 70's and early 80's there was a show that was on occasionally called Dean Martin's Celebrity Roasts and it was filmed in front of a live audience at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Popular stars of the day were roasted and when I say roasted they really got it. Stars who were roasted were Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr, Jimmy Stewart, George Burns and Jackie Gleason, just to name a few. Sinatra was made fun of because he was Italian and there were a lot of mob connection jokes. Sammy Davis Jr got a lot of black jokes thrown at him. Jimmy Stewart was treated like he was senile. George Burns got a lot of old age jokes. Jackie Gleason got a lot of fat jokes.

My point is everyone laughed. And I mean the audience, the roasters and most of all the person who was being roasted. Jokes were made but when they were done making everyone laugh they always shook the hand or hugged or kissed the person they were kidding. Everyone was in on what was going on including the home audience. These were jokes and nothing that was said was really meant by them unless they broke character and told the person who was being roasted how much they loved and respected them.

I watched a few of these shows a few months back and they still are funny to this day but at the same time I said to myself that there was no way something like this could be on network TV today because someone would find something offensive within the first five minutes and that would be that. The network would be busy apologizing to everyone and there wouldn't be another show.

I don't blame people from other countries laughing at the U.S. They probably think we are a country just sitting around waiting for something to complain about, like that old lady who lives down the street who spies on everyone.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 9-15

...I got back from being out of town a little over an hour ago and before I have the nicest bit of sleep since Thursday night I wanted to come in here and post the random thoughts for the week. Then I'll pass out on a real bed and not one that would put a torture chamber to shame.

...Of course it sucked down there but I knew that going in. Usually on Sundays we take off in the morning and are home by noon but when we were still hanging around there at 2 pm I knew I had a long day ahead of me. The only person that didn't care what time we left was my wife and that's because she didn't have to do any of the driving.

...The Seattle Mariners have another hard-throwing young righthander in their system by the name of Taijuan Walker that they've been keeping a pretty watchful eye over. After his start last week he has already been shut down for the year because the Mariners want to be on the safe side with him and not push him to log any more innings for thr year since they'll be missing the playoffs anyhow. At any other time I could care less about this because it doesn't matter to me what this team does but it kind of makes me wonder though if they did this for themselves or if they did this to show other teams that he ended the season healthy just in case they come calling about his availability this winter since there is no way in hell that the Mariners are going to sell another damaged bill of goods to anyone else again just like they did to the Yankees two years ago when they snowballed the Yankees into taking Michael Pineda and we all know how well that turned out since this will be his second season in a row that he has not appeared in a major league game.

...I really think the main difference between a coffee and a latte are that Starbucks and places like that can throw an extra dollar on the price of the drink and no one will say anything about it.

...When the Pirates won their 82nd game it was reported that emergency rooms all over the Pittsburgh metropolitan area were overflowing due to the record number of people who became light-headed and passed out after watching the game on TV.

...Detroit Lions defensive tackle Ndamukong Suh may be the most hated player in the NFL but gang members all over Detroit love him. They know a kindred spirit when they see one.

...If you are anything like me when you hear someone else complain about younger people when they say that they are disrespectful and care only about themselves you usually don't put up much of argument and if you are so inclined you might even throw in some examples of what you've seen yourself. But if you actually stop and look around you'll see that people who are much older and you think should know better are sometimes much worse than any of these kids can ever hope to be, and it took one pain in the a$$ old woman at a wholesale club I was at last Tuesday morning to have this lesson permanently drilled into my head forever. I went there early that day to get a big bag of dog food and some fruit. There was hardly anyone in the store at the time and because of that I knew I would not have to wait in line long to check out, at least that's what it looked like to me. I was the second one in line right behind an older woman that had just one item, which was a ten pack of soap. "This should be fast, I said to myself. I'll get the hell out of here and buy me an iced tea and go home." I was only right about the iced tea part and going home. It was obvious to me that the woman went to the store for one thing and that happened to be the soap, and then she would go on her way. She had to know how much the soap was because she had the one dollar bills in her hand before the cashier rang up the item. But apparently she wasn't clutching enough ones because she had to go fishing around in that huge purse of hers for more. Then she had to do the same thing when she wanted to pay the exact amount in change and she proceeded to do just that after she emptied her change purse on the conveyer belt and counted out the seventy-three cents the cashier needed. I don't have a beard or a mustache but I was in line long enough to start growing one. The woman was unmindful to the fact that she was taking an extremely long time to buy just one thing and that a line was forming behind me because of it. I consider myself very fortunate that I got off this easy after watching what unfolded in front of me. After all, what if she had more than one item?

...Last Monday pot activists in Denver were protesting that the proposed taxes on recreational marijuana in Colorado were too high so they came up with a novel idea to express their anger. They gave out free joints to every adult who attended the campaign to defeat the proposal by state lawmakers to have higher taxes for marijuana than those for alcohol. The rally was such a success that the organizers had to roll more cigarettes while people waited in line and Cleveland Indians pitcher Chris Perez said that his dog tried to have a dozen sent to his house but he stopped him just in time.

...And all over the country tobacco smokers are telling the potheads in Colorado to join the club because they've been getting stiffed by high taxes for years now.

...There's a guy in Los Angeles that took his wife ballroom dancing every single week for fifty years and each time they went he wanted her to have a brand new dress to wear. Over the years the man ended up buying her over 55,000 dresses. It goes without saying that these people were very rich and had a lot of closet space. I'm glad my wife didn't hear about this or else she'd start getting ideas and knowing her she'd want the shoes to go with the dresses.

...It took them fifteen years to do it but Sportservice, the company that provides all the vending at the Detroit Tigers games finally got rid of one of their employees known as the Singing Hot Dog Man. I heard about this guy before and I'm surprised that he lasted this long. He would sing so loud that people would get distracted from what was going on out on the field. Doesn't seem fair though because they have that nut in Cleveland that pounds that drum non-stop and he's been around for years.

...Alex Rodriguez's arbitration hearing to appeal his 211- game suspension is scheduled to begin on September 30th, exactly one day after the Yankees regular season ends and if that sounds fishy to you then join the club. Why? Because Major League Baseball should have/must have anticipated that Rodriguez would appeal the ban that he received. His first game back with the Yankees was on the 5th of August and they are waiting 57 days to start this hearing? If these people are actually serious about nailing this guy they would have began this appeal process last month instead of letting him complete the remainder of the season. My prediction is that he'll get a ban that is even less than 100 games. I really hope I'm wrong but I just have this feeling.

...I don't know what surprised me more, seeing a batter take two strikes and then walk back to the dugout thinking he struck out or that it happened during a Yankees-Orioles game. I've been watching these two teams for years and I never really know what to expect next. For example,this is going back a few years but when Whitey Ford was the Yankee pitching coach in 1975 the Orioles protested a game once because he went out to the mound three times to talk to his pitcher and the very next year at Yankee Stadium the Orioles forgot the number of outs and the Yankees were given an extra out in the inning. Didn't help though, Baltimore won the game.

...A Montana woman who was married to her husband for only eight days pushed him over a cliff after an argument the two were having. She was having second thoughts about marrying him especially after finding out his savings account wasn't as big as he claimed it was. She faces life in prison if she is found guilty. If that happens or not is up to the court system but whatever does end up becoming of her there will be some women's rights groups out there defending her and her story will be made into a Lifetime movie which will portray her as a sympathetic and loving wife that was forced to do what she did.

...An Alaska man walked into a bank last week and gave the teller his debit card and driver's license and a note telling her he was robbing the bank and just so she wouldn't get nervous he told her he did not have a gun. The teller then activated the silent alarm and handed the man a dollar bill and then he sat down waiting for the police to arrive. They're so well mannered up there. The criminals don't even make the cops chase them after they've done something. He told the police his excuse for doing this was that he had "some issues." He sure did. He didn't have a getaway vehicle and he only came away with a buck from his heist. I'd say those were issues.

...Kristen Stewart raised $500,000 for the Hurricane Sandy relief effort by sitting with a Middle Eastern Prince for fifteen minutes. You know you're rich when you can do something like this and not think twice about it. I imagine if he sweetened the pot a little bit he could have had her for the whole night.

...The Yankees placed Derek Jeter on the disabled list for the fourth and final time last Wednesday, putting the final period on his worst and most frustrating season ever. Jeter made 17 million dollars this year and he only played in 17 games which means he made one million dollars a game this year. In return for that huge paycheck he hit .190 and got twelve hits (including one home run) and seven RBI's. Thank you very much. Now bend over.

...There's been a lot of talk about Jeter retiring after this season but I'm not entirely convinced. He has a player option for next year for 9.5 million dollars and I think the only way he comes back to New York next year is if he exercises that option because if he declines it and forces the Yankees to renegotiate with him they're going to point him in the direction of the nearest bridge and tell him to jump off. I used to really fret about this stuff until I realized one day that I can't do a thing about it so why spend time brooding about it? I have better things to do then be concerned if a multimillionaire is going to be making more money.

...Then I stop and recall all that he's done since 1996 and if he wants to come back and prove people wrong then that's fine by me. After all he's done for the Yankees it is the right thing to do.

...Well, that would have been my second guess Dept: Last Wednesday when I was out and about running some errands I remembered I had to return some Tupperware containers over at my parent's house so I did just that after I got everything else done. When I got there one of my aunts was at the house so I decided to stay for coffee. Most of the stuff they were talking about I was only half paying attention too but then my aunt tells my mother she went out and bought a wandering jew. That's when my ears perked up. What the hell is she talking about, I said to myself. And then my mother says she wanted to get a wandering jew too but she wouldn't know what room to put it in. That was it. I excused myself and asked them what in the world they were talking about and they explained to me that a wandering jew is a houseplant. Oh yeah I replied as I was lying through my teeth, I remember now. I've seen them before. They look nice. I said it so convincingly that they bought it but in truth I had no idea what they meant. All I could picture was a little Jewish guy wandering down the side of the road. Admit it, some of you didn't know what this was either. Now we all learned something today in this thread.

And to show you that there really is such a thing, here is a picture of one.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

...I don't understand why Bobby Valentine waited a dozen years to complain publicly about what he thought the Yankees did or did not do after the September 11 bombings.

...Whomever Ryan Braun hired to do his public relations for him after he was suspended in July managed to come up with a nice idea for him to be seen helping out building homes for veterans through Habitat for Humanity. And that's exactly what he was doing when photographers that just happened to be in the neighborhood took pictures of him and his mother while he was helping out on a project in Sylmar, California last weekend. Of course he wasn't there long enough to get his T-Shirt dirty but that's another story.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 9-22

...Last Monday the South Korean military shot and killed a man who was trying to swim across a river to North Korea. This was something that puzzled the soldiers at the Imjin River where the incident happened because on the rare instances that they see someone swimming in that river they are starting from the other direction. After the body was recovered and searched for the identity of the man they discovered his phone which was found in his coat near the water. Evidently one of the last things he did was consult Google Maps for directions which was why he was swimming towards the north. Obviously that app is still working out a few bugs.

...With all the beards the Red Sox players have they look like the sloppiest team in the major leagues. Unfortunately it did not prevent them from winning games and clinching the American League East.

...The Chicago City Council last week banned concealed weapons in all bars and restaurants that sell liquor. On the surface this sounds like a good idea since no one wants to go out to dinner knowing that the guy two tables over from you has a gun but many are doubting that the city can enforce the new rules and sadly they are probably right. It's not like this new law is going to be respected and followed to the letter by all the armed gang bangers.

...If you are anything like me you read articles about foods that are good and healthy for you to have and foods to stay away from. For instance anything from fast food places like McDonalds or Burger King should be avoided and since I have taken it upon myself to read more about healthy living I have never questioned nutritionists or doctors who recommend that you don't have a Big Mac or Whopper for lunch. But then when I read about the sixty-four year old man who for thirty years consumed ten Big Macs each week without fail, it really made me stop and question if these so-called nutrition experts know what they are talking about. That's 12,000 Big Macs that this guy knocked off in thirty years. I saw a picture of this guy who has done this for the past three decades and he's tall and thin and in shape or the exact opposite of what you'd expect. Now I'm not saying that starting this week I'm going to rid the world of ten Big Macs because if I did I'd regret it immediately the next time I stepped on a scale. The only thing that I can think of is this man's metabolism must work very well because the sodium in one of these sandwiches (1,070mg) is way more than anyone needs on a daily basis. And he did this ten times a week.

...Since Lindsay Lohan left her court-mandated ninety days in treatment recently she has managed to stay out of the headlines in her attempt to have a fresh start for both her career and personal life. Now that she's done that her mother is taking over the headlines for the family as she was recently arrested on drunk driving charges on Long Island, New York when she was caught driving 77 mph in a 55 mph zone and was found to be intoxicated during the routine stop. She was arrested and charged with DWI and Aggravated DWI with a blood alcohol content of .20 percent, which is more than twice the legal limit. And she also got a speeding ticket which was the reason she got in all this trouble in the first place. To top it off, when she got to the police station she claimed she was injured during her arrest. So the police called an ambulance and she was checked out and no injuries were found. As soon as she was informed of that she admitted she wasn't injured after all. What a piece of work. Now we know where Lindsay Lohan got it from. These people are trailer trash at its finest.

...The year-long engagement between Liam Hemsworth and Miley Cyrus has come to a screeching halt with Cyrus and her tongue going one way and Hemsworth going in the opposite direction with a huge smile on his face. This is what happens when one person has class and the other does not. When informed of her son's broken engagement Liam Hemsworth's mother was so happy that she passed out in her living room and had to be revived with smelling salts.

...As if New England Patriots cornerback Alfonzo Dennard wasn't in enough trouble already for assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest, he is now facing up to six years in prison for violating his probation from that incident when he was pulled over for drinking and driving. He is also looking at a possible league suspension for violating the NFL’s substance-abuse policy on top of this. If convicted, this will be the second player the Patriots will lose to the prison system this year. Maybe if he's lucky he can be sent to the same prison Aaron Hernandez is in and they can end up joining the football team. They'll still be in the slammer but what a hell of a team they'll have.

...Mswati III, the 45-year-old King of Swaziland (wherever the hell that is) chose an 18-year-old beauty pageant contestant as his 14th wife last week. That's not saying that is his fourteenth wife one after the other. This is his fourteenth wife at the same time while the other thirteen are out running around someplace. Some people are just gluttons for punishment.

...Did anyone here watch Under the Dome? I tuned in for all thirteen episodes just to wait for that Big Jim guy to get what's coming to him and in the series finale and they literally leave us hanging with Barbie until next summer when the fun starts again.

...A South Carolina woman was arrested and booked on a criminal domestic violence charge after she went after her roommate because the man would not stop playing music from The Eagles and after being forced to listen to Hotel California one too many times she grabbed some kitchen knives and cut the man on his arm, elbow and hand but fortunately for him he was not seriously injured. He's kind of lucky in a way that he was playing Eagles songs because if he had been listening to country music all that time he'd have been a goner.

...I am wondering how many nightmares that man in Zimbabwe, Africa is going to have now after spending the night in a lodge while an eight-foot crocodile was lying under his bed? The crocodile was discovered by a screaming housekeeping staff employee who went in the room to clean and change the sheets while the man was having his breakfast. It was believed that the crocodile came from a river nearby to the lodge but they are not sure how the animal managed to get into the room unless he brought his own key. This just proves that little kids knew what they were talking about all along. There really are monsters under the bed.

...And they wonder why people have been cancelling their reservations at that place. They must figure that the next time a crocodile is spotted there that one just might be in the mood to eat.

...There's a restaurant in Brooklyn that is offering something called a "silent dinner" to its patrons which is a $40 four-course meal and the only rule in place while you are having your meal is that you are not allowed to talk. People that do end up talking during dinner are reminded of the rule the first time and if they talk again they have to finish their dinners on a bench outside. The reasoning behind this is that the owner believes that in general restaurants have become louder than ever and by hosting these silent dinners it will teach people to focus on the taste and nutritional value of the food. At least that's the theory behind this and, if it happens to catch on there, these silent dinners will become a regular event. Well, to each his own but after hearing about this a few days ago I came away knowing one thing for certain. If my wife was there for dinner she's be out on one of those benches within five minutes.

...Never again will I complain about my neighbors after reading about that Long Island animal control officer who was arrested last Thursday for housing and selling 850 snakes that he was keeping in his garage. Among the snakes that he had in his possession were two six-foot-long Burmese pythons - the same kind of snake that strangled to death those two young Canadian boys as they were sleeping. These snakes are illegal in the Empire State which should prove to the remainder of the country that some laws in New York actually make sense. Long Island officials stumbled onto this setup after the deputy town attorney visited the man's home to see if he was committing workers’ compensation fraud. So when tomorrow morning comes and the next-door neighbors start slamming their doors at 6:00 a.m. to leave for work I'm not going to say a thing. At least they don't have any snakes.

...The more that I read about what happens at soccer games the more I am convinced that the game itself is slowly driving their fans nuts. As a lifelong fan of professional team sports I have tried a few times to understand and appreciate the game but every time that I have tried to embrace it I have come back discouraged because each time the results for me were the same. I found soccer boring. I'd rather listen to David Ortiz recite Shakespeare than be subjected to another soccer match. And that's what I think happens to their fans. Years of watching two teams run up and down a very long playing field listening to the thump-thump-thump of the ball as the players kick it around without hardly a score has done something to their heads. If one team manages to score a goal they may as well call the game right there because nothing's going to happen the rest of the way and everyone knows it and when rowdy fans know this they get angry. They throw trash on the field, they fight with themselves, they throw bottles at the referees and they start fires, just to name a few things. Which brings me to the subject at hand. During a game in a Brazilian league a team masseur stepped onto the field during a tie game and made two key saves near the end of a match to preserve the tie, allowing his team to advance to the competition's quarterfinals. After this happened all hell broke loose (see the youtube clip!) and the other team chased the masseur from the field and he was immediately put under police protection. Just another run of the mill soccer game. After the game the Brazilian sports tribunal removed the team from their league because of what this guy did. And by the way, I never knew that these teams had masseurs. Maybe the Yankees should employ one of these people just so Jeter can play in more than seventeen games next year. The funny part was that they actually needed a tribunal to decide what team should advance in their playoffs. Soccer? You can have it.

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

...After today's 1:05 p.m. game with the Giants the Yankees have two short three game series' with Tampa Bay and Houston to end the season with and no matter how this ends up working out for them, whether they manage to sneak into a wild card spot or if they end up sitting out on October baseball it is going to be a sad ending for Yankee fans everywhere. It's been a well-known fact that this is Mariano Rivera's last season but all season long you could almost put that out of your mind for awhile because there were a lot of games to be played or at least that is how I looked at it. But now with seven games left starting with today's I am forced to look at the reality of the situation and what I see of it I don't like at all. Players retire all the time, it happens every year. Andy Pettitte's retiring too but when I heard that news I just shrugged my shoulders and immediately put it out of my mind. It's not like I dislike the him any less but after watching him this year I had a feeling he would leave and this time for good. Rivera's leaving the right way. Making us want more.

[JoeRudi26]

...The more that I read about what happens at soccer games the more I am convinced that the game itself is slowly driving their fans nuts. As a lifelong fan of professional team sports I have tried a few times to understand and appreciate the game but every time that I have tried to embrace it I have come back discouraged because each time the results for me were the same.

I fee the exact same way as you do about soccer, Y4L. Being married to someone from Europe (11 years now), I've done my very best to try and get to "like" the game -- understand the rules, and so on. It's just not going to happen. Her family was visiting in 2006 just in time for the World Cup, and of course they were glued to the T.V. the whole time. It was chaos, the excitement that they showed was nothing short of one of us perhaps watching the Super Bowl with either our team in it, or perhaps one would have money on the game.

I may have posted this here on the site at one time, I honestly can't remember, but this vid is about an American NFL coach who crossed the pond and was now trying to coach a soccer team. One of the most hilarious vids I've seen in a very long time.

[Jim825]

I guess I'm in the minority here because I enjoy soccer. My oldest daughter started playing soccer at age 5 and continued all the way up through her first year in college, when an injury forced her to take a break for a few years. For the last two years, she's been playing in an adult league with her boyfriend. Over the years, I've probably watched hundreds of games.

To me, there's a certain beauty in the way a team can move the ball down the field with a series of pinpoint passes, ultimately resulting in a goal. Also, on any given day, there's no guarantee that the stronger team will be the winner. I think that's why I enjoy watching the World Cup (both men's and women's). I will say that I'm no fan of players who flop, trying to ean a cheap foul call in their favor.

I'll also admit that the way you guys feel about soccer is the way I feel about hockey. I've tried watching it, thinking of it as soccer on skates, but can't find a way to enjoy the game. Plus, I see no reason for fighting. To me, it stops the whole flow of the game. If fighting is such a good idea in hockey, why do players in every other sport get ejected from the game (and fined or suspended) when they fight?

To each, their own, I guess.....

[JoeRudi26]

Good post, Jim. Make no mistake, I feel the same way about hockey too.

Oh, and NASCAR or any other form of racing.

[JoeRudi26]

Just to add though, and it may be a bit off the beaten path, but I absolutely love spring board diving. The bodily grace to me is hypnotizing. Did it for many years when I was younger, like watching it even more.

[Yankee4Life]

I fee the exact same way as you do about soccer, Y4L. Being married to someone from Europe (11 years now), I've done my very best to try and get to "like" the game -- understand the rules, and so on. It's just not going to happen. Her family was visiting in 2006 just in time for the World Cup, and of course they were glued to the T.V. the whole time. It was chaos, the excitement that they showed was nothing short of one of us perhaps watching the Super Bowl with either our team in it, or perhaps one would have money on the game.

That reminds me of something. I'm sure you recall SeanO who used to come around here a lot. Well it was at that time during the World Cup that year that he was watching it too and every day he was talking about it in the shoutbox. He made it sound as exciting as a come-from-behind win by your favorite team day after day. Finally curiosity got the better of me and I watched the next game that was on. I have no idea who was playing but I gave it a shot. So I'm watching it and watching it and finally half time comes and I say to myself that this is as exciting as watching grass grow. But I keep on watching because I wanted to see what Sean was raving about and when the game ended I still was not able to figure out what was so good about it.

I guess I'm in the minority here because I enjoy soccer. My oldest daughter started playing soccer at age 5 and continued all the way up through her first year in college, when an injury forced her to take a break for a few years. For the last two years, she's been playing in an adult league with her boyfriend. Over the years, I've probably watched hundreds of games.

Maybe that's why you are more open to this sport Jim because your daughter was and still is involved in it. That was her interest and your interest is your daughter so you learned to like the game as much as she did.

I'll also admit that the way you guys feel about soccer is the way I feel about hockey. I've tried watching it, thinking of it as soccer on skates, but can't find a way to enjoy the game. Plus, I see no reason for fighting. To me, it stops the whole flow of the game. If fighting is such a good idea in hockey, why do players in every other sport get ejected from the game (and fined or suspended) when they fight?

I understand why you dislike hockey. There could be a nice pace of the game going on, a few good shots on goal that the goalie knocks away, the skate back down to the other end, etc and then all of a sudden for some reason it turns into the bleachers at Fenway Park out there.

I think the main reason why I don't follow hockey a lot (and basketball for that matter) is because those two sports are winter sports and as a kid I was such a big baseball fan and when the season was over I missed it so much that I didn't want to involve myself in other sports. It was baseball for me all the way.

Good post, Jim. Make no mistake, I feel the same way about hockey too.

Oh, and NASCAR or any other form of racing.

Good Lord. My father-in-law, may he rest in peace, loved NASCAR and as a good son-in-law I tried to watch it with him but even that man who loved that sport so much would eventually nod off during the telecast. As soon as I saw that I left the room.

[JoeRudi26]

Great story, Jim. Believe it or not, I went through the same thing with my ex wife. We'd visit every Sunday, and it was the same 'ole, same 'ole. My father-in-law was parked in his lazy boy with the race on, and it didn't take long for him to doze off.

However, I'd make every excuse in the world to find the porch swing outside and at least wait until the coast was clear. As far as hockey goes, I simply could never see where the puck was, but what always baffled me the most was how those guys could skate amidst the chaos. I've tried, and I can't even stand up on the damn things.

[JoeRudi26]

That reminds me of something. I'm sure you recall SeanO who used to come around here a lot. Well it was at that time during the World Cup that year that he was watching it too and every day he was talking about it in the shoutbox. He made it sound as exciting as a come-from-behind win by your favorite team day after day. Finally curiosity got the better of me and I watched the next game that was on. I have no idea who was playing but I gave it a shot. So I'm watching it and watching it and finally half time comes and I say to myself that this is as exciting as watching grass grow. But I keep on watching because I wanted to see what Sean was raving about and when the game ended I still was not able to figure out what was so good about it.

I do remember a bit of this Y4L, and as Jim had said earlier, to each their own. My step-son (Norwegian) was here in 2010 and hijacked the big screen on a daily basis to watch the World Cup. The only thing I honestly remember about it was the crowd has these devises, noise making devises, that sounded like a 100,000 sick ducks yacking all at the same time.

I simply couldn't take it, and found excuses to be out of the house while it was all going on. Good Lord, I have no idea how the players could even concentrate.

[JoeRudi26]

ah, found a vid of this God awful noise. It got a lot worse as the games went on, and it NEVER let up. Seems I can't embed the vid, but you can still click on it. At your own risk.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mShz9itP5M

[Yankee4Life]

ah, found a vid of this God awful noise. It got a lot worse as the games went on, and it NEVER let up. Seems I can't embed the vid, but you can still click on it. At your own risk.

Good Lord. It sounds like an enormous gathering of bees. I watched all 11 plus minutes of it without the sound on full blast and that is still ringing in my ears.