Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning Updated To 7-28

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 11-23

...The funniest thing about the Jason Heyward - Shelby Miller trade came out of the mouth of John Hart, the Braves' new general manager when he said with a straight face that it was very difficult to trade Jason Heyward. Why? What the hell has he done since he started out red-hot in his rookie year? Saying that about Heyward in front of the press must have been harder for Hart to do than actually trade him. Talk about taking out the garbage.

...Anyone notice that Gmail has started putting ads in your social tab now? Unlike Yahoo mail at least you can delete them.

...Joe Maddon said on a radio show in Chicago that he called former Cubs manager Rick Renteria and left him a message but he has not heard back from him. I wonder why?

...Remember about a year ago that big uproar about Kmart being open at 6 am on Thanksgiving and other retailers hurrying to follow their lead? Employees were furious and there was even talk of them all going on strike. You can see for yourself how well that turned out because another Thanksgiving is only days away and the stores are opening up as early as they did last year and I guarantee you if you walk in to one of them on Thursday morning you will have no trouble finding someone to help you. There will be no reason for the employees to organize or for some of the more outspoken ones to complain to the media to have these stores close like they have been in the past on Thanksgiving. All the public has to do is not show up at 6:00 a.m. on Thursday morning to make these retail giants change their mind and that is precisely why this won't be changing any time soon.

...Have any of you ever had a friend that you wanted to help but didn't know how? That's what I am up against right now and I don't know what I should do or even if I should do anything at all. I've mentioned him before in this thread but not a lot. He's the guy who owns a baseball card and memorabilia store and he does a pretty good business at it too. His store is a lot more than just sports cards. Jerseys, autographs, video games, console systems, etc. He's now in the process of selling his business because his wife does not want to be married anymore. It literally was that one night he went to bed married and then woke up the next day with his wife letting him know of her intentions to walk out the door. What can you do about something like this except sit there and listen to the man talk? That's all I've been doing off and on during the times I've seen him and when I leave I always have the feeling that I should do more. I don't know how long they've been married but I know it's been over twenty years. His wedding was the first and only one I have been too that the men in the wedding party wore their favorite team's baseball hats during the reception dinner. This guy's a big Reds fan so Cincinnati was well represented at the front of the table. He is as big a baseball fan as we are in here but he's never been a member of this website and that's because when he wanted to buy Mvp '05 it was already off the market and the holdup artists on eBay were selling the game for seventy dollars a pop. Now he has a PS3 and plays The Show on there and he thinks that's all he needs. Maybe what I can do is try to give him a push to play Mvp again so he can be introduced to what we have here. That could be a helpful distraction and something that he needs to keep his mind off of things because what he really needs is to have his wife come to her senses and that's something I don't know how to do.

...If there is one thing about me that has never changed over the years besides my valid reasons of hating everything from New England it is my complete lack of interest in politics. That's why I don't understand why I have been watching Madam Secretary since it came on the air back in September. The first week it was on it happened to be the week I had to stay at my sister's house to watch their dog because they were on vacation. That show was on and since I had nothing to do besides letting the dog in and out and making sure she had food and water, I watched it. It's nothing but politics and all the lying, backstabbing, protocol and butt-kissing that goes along with it. But yet I haven't missed a show. It's probably because of Tea Leoni, a woman who can look hot wearing a suit of armor. Bebe Neuwirth is also on this show and she still looks like death warmed over. Welcome to politics Y4L.

...Last Monday we had our first look at snow in our area and considering what Buffalo got (more than six feet of it) we were let off easy. Even though we will be looking at the white stuff until at least the end of March the first time some people see it on the ground they tend to panic and drive like they have never been in it before. I had to run a few errands that day and I could not believe how many parked cars and garbage cans that were on the side of the road were hit by motorists. I had to go to three places that day and I only ended up going to one because I didn't want to press my luck. I enjoy bumper cars at the amusement park but not in my car.

...A teacher from New Mexico is facing charges of threatening a student with a knife for talking during a pop quiz. That is really surprising. Usually it is the other way around.

...Derek Jeter played golf with President Obama at the Shadow Creek country club in Las Vegas yesterday. I wonder if Jeter let the President tee off first?

...Owner Jeffrey Loria of the Miami Marlins gave Giancarlo Stanton a thirteen-year $325 million contract extension. The Marlins included a no-trade clause and an opt-out opportunity after six years. That means Stanton can pull an Alex Rodriguez move and opt out during the World Series six years from now. This contract makes the one Robinson Cano signed last year look paltry. This is a huge risk signing Stanton to this big of a deal because you don't know how if he will be a little gun shy when he faces live pitching in the spring after being hit in the face in Milwaukee in early September. He missed the rest of the season because of this and since then has undergone numerous surgeries because of this errant pitch. Major league managers and coaches have always said that the best thing to do when you get hit by a pitch is to immediately get back in there and hit. That's so you don't spend a lot of time thinking about the pitch that hit you because then it will always be in the back of your mind. Makes sense. But Stanton didn't get that chance. He's got to wait six months when March rolls around to face opposing pitchers. If he starts backing away from inside pitches (and in my mind's eye I can still see Paul Blair do the same thing) he is going to be in trouble.

...No matter how this ends up turning out for him Bill Cosby will not be looking back on this month with any fond memories because he has already been tried and convicted by the same media who has praised him during his long and renowned career. In an obvious public relations ploy to distance themselves from him TV Land has stopped airing reruns of The Cosby Show while NBC canceled plans for a new situation comedy centered around him. Even Netflix joined in by postponing a new stand-up comedy special which was to be broadcast this week. Nothing like hanging the guy out to dry. While this real-life soap opera is going on right in front of us one thing that people have conveniently forgotten is that everything said about Cosby are nothing but allegations and have not been proven as of yet. How trustworthy is Janice Dickinson, a woman who makes a claim against Cosby about something that happened thirty-two years ago? Thirty-two years! It is incredible to see how many people are taking this woman's word at face value for something that happened that long ago and not even questioning why she stayed silent for so long? It is entirely possible that this woman saw an opportunity to insert herself into this scandal with the hope of getting a nice fat cash settlement in the end but the media, because they are so intent on treating people if they are guilty before any real evidence is presented, have taken her word as the truth. I don't know what the truth is but I am willing to wait and find out instead of believing the word of Janice Dickinson and anyone else who has made these accusations.

...There's been a lot of lean years recently if you are a fan of the Oakland Raiders like I am and this year has been especially tough. Even though they have had bad teams for quite a while now it is still hard for me to get used to seeing this team this way because when I was younger I was used to seeing them only lose a few games a year instead of winning just a few. But that was then. Thursday night's win over Kansas City was nice but when a couple of the defensive players started celebrating too early near the end of the game I immediately thought the Chiefs were going to pull out a miracle. Never have I seen players do that before on the field before the game was over. That's something that the likes of Ted Hendricks and Jack Tatum would have never done. They still have a lot to learn.

...As I close this up this week I want to wish everyone and their families a very happy Thanksgiving here at Mvpmods. For those of you who live in other countries and don't celebrate this holiday all I can say is have a nice Thursday. Thanksgiving is a major holiday here in the U.S. where turkeys are consumed by families from coast to coast and with the introduction of deep fryers, many garages will catch fire because the cook of the day does not know how to use the fryer correctly. This holiday also means sappy movies on the Hallmark channel and football on TV all day long. The NFL owns Thanksgiving. The NBA doesn't even have any games scheduled that day and there's only one game going on in the NHL (Edmonton at Nashville) that will attract as much attention and excitement as going to the supermarket to watch the shelves being re-stocked. Even with the monopoly they have on this day the NFL repeatedly schedules mediocre games just about every year. Take the three games we get to see this year. We lead off with the Bears visiting the Lions. Detroit is always on because it's a tradition and this year they even have a good team. In past years they were so bad they had you channel surfing before halftime and before you knew it you were watching an infomercial about skin products. Next the Eagles visit the Cowboys. I used to hate having Dallas on TV every year but not now. Around the time this game is going on people are usually eating their meal or just finishing up and nothing will put you to sleep faster than a turkey dinner and watching the Dallas Cowboys. This I can personally vouch for. The final game starts at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time with the Seahawks visiting the San Francisco 49ers. Since the NFL added a third game on Thanksgiving a few years back I don't think I have watched a single one. I can only watch baseball for this long and I got to wait until April for that. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Enjoy your day!

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 11-30

...I did not go Black Friday shopping last week mainly because I have a brain and every so often I have been known to use it and that's why I avoided all the pushing and shoving that people were doing to buy the low priced tablets Walmart was dangling in front of people like carrots in front of a mule. But I did go to the supermarket the very next day and that is as close as I got to holiday shopping over the weekend. Even my wife, who never met a sale that she was not a part of avoids this day too. She probably doesn't like dealing with professionals like herself.

...'Tis the Season, Dept: Since this is the first season of open-to-all-adults marijuana sales in the state of Colorado, pot shops there are offering similar deals to their customers that are used by traditional retailers to attract holiday shoppers. For example, one enterprising business in Denver is selling an ounce of marijuana for fifty dollars (about a fifth of the normal cost) to their first sixteen customers that were in line on Black Friday and over the weekend. There's other things like pot-and-pumpkin pies which must have been a hit in some homes last Thursday and special holiday-spiced teas that were packed with a punch. Can you imagine if they were allowed to accept orders from all over the country? Amazon wouldn't be able to keep up.

...The Red Sox made their fans very happy over the Thanksgiving week last week by signing Hanley Ramirez from the Dodgers and Pablo Sandoval from the World Champion Giants for more money and more years than they are actually worth. But that's ok. They now play in Boston and that makes everything fine. Sandoval only hit .279 for the season but had a terrific post season and that could have been a factor in how much money the Red Sox threw at him. Sandoval said that he signed with Boston because he "needed a new challenge." I'm sorry but I am having a hard time understanding this. The guy's been on three World Series winning teams. Isn't that the biggest challenge of all, trying to defend your title? Apparently not for this guy. He'd rather go and play his home games 3,000 miles away for a team that finished in last place. Between him and Ortiz their won't be any scraps for a mouse to grab after they get done with the post-game meals. And Ramirez? He plays when he wants to play and is injury prone. He'll end up being good friends with Jose Reyes if he isn't already. Every time I think of Ramirez I remember four years back when he jogged after a ball while playing for the Marlins. Let him try something like that in Fenway Park. They'll boo him straight back to Los Angeles.

...The problem I had with this is not that the Red Sox signed these guys but that no one complained when they did it. This team spends in crazy amounts like the Yankees do but no one ever gets mad at Boston when they do it. When the Yankees spend this amount of money ($183 million on two players) everyone gets mad and points fingers at them saying that they are ruining the game. Smart Yankee fans know that the free agents their team signed did not ruin the game. It just ruined their team. I hope Boston makes that same mistake.

...Call it a pet peeve of mine but I can not stand it when a read about some ballplayer telling the media that he is still deciding on what team he is going to be playing for next like it's a decision that we are dying to know and before we find out we won't be able to get through the day properly. Pablo Sandoval did this recently when he let everyone know that he needed "just a few more days" to come to his decision. I was so anxious that I couldn't leave my house because I just had to be there when the MLB Network broke the news. Now Andrew Miller is doing the same thing. Looks like I won't be going out again any time soon.

...The search for a new shortstop for the Yankees is thankfully not going to be found in Philadelphia. They contacted the Phillies about Jimmy Rollins and offered them a utility player for him but they said no. The Phils must still see Rollins as he was in his prime a few years back because they wanted much more than what the Yankees offered and thank God for that. Rollins would have made the perfect Yankee. At thirty-six he is just the right age for them. Combined the fact that he is overrated and his best years are behind him it is no wonder the Yankees tried to get him.

...Ray Rice won his appeal from his lifetime suspension by the NFL for violating its domestic violence policy, a policy that was most likely written up on the fly by the league during the past few months. He is now free to sign with any team that wants him and even though there are no takers yet (he only won this appeal on Friday) that doesn't mean there won't be. Just wait for the first team that needs help in their backfield because of an injury. They'll sign him and they'll forget all about what caused him to be suspended in the first place and if he can help them get into the playoffs, even better.

...Every few years when Charles Manson's name came up in the news it was when he getting set to go to a parole hearing to determine his possible releaser from his lifetime sentence in prison and each time this happens he is denied parole and he goes back into obscurity until his next parole hearing when the same thing happens again. Not this time. Manson, now eighty, has been issued a marriage license in California so he can marry a twenty-six-year-old woman who left her home in Missouri nine years ago because she says she loves him and wants to exonerate him. For those of you who are not that familiar with the name, Manson is responsible for one of the most senseless and brutal murders that took place over the span of two nights in Los Angeles in August of 1969. He had a cult following - in fact he had an actual cult and they still are behind bars to this day along with him. I was too young to remember when this all took place but I saw photos of the people responsible and the girl that he is marrying almost looks like the girls that were with Manson all those years ago. Tall, thin, long-haired brunette, a vacant look in her eyes that gives her that empty-headed look. And considering what she's doing this observation is probably not far off the mark. Just the type of woman to devote herself to Manson. But because he is a life prisoner with no parole date, Manson is not entitled to any conjugal visits once he and his blushing bride tie the knot. This is probably a huge relief to the girl's family back in Missouri.

...This should be an example to every guy who wants to get married but thinks that it will never happen for him. If Manson, who has been behind bars for over forty-four years can find someone to want to marry him, then it should be a piece of cake for everyone else that wants it.

...Postal inspectors arrested a twenty-year veteran mail carrier for selling drugs out of his mail truck and out of his home. The carrier is now facing felony charges after $17,000 worth of meth was seized when they raided his house. Customers on his route stated later that every so often the carrier would deliver a letter or a package to someone else's house by mistake but he never messed up once on the meth ones.

...Thanks for Nothing, Dept: Last Wednesday I went to Verizon to buy out my service contract because what I am paying each month for my phone is a lot more than the use I get out of it. Without any exaggeration I use my phone less than ten minutes a month which is something most people find unbelievable. But it's true. I'm paying forty-three dollars and some change a month to them and my contract does not expire until September of 2016. Almost two seasons of baseball will have to be completed until my time was up and had I stayed with them with this current plan I would have spent over nine hundred dollars on something I get no use out of. I told them I wanted to stay with them but I wanted a pay-as-you-go plan that they offer that is similar to what a TracPhone does but they would not let me switch over to that. So, after saying goodbye to three hundred and thirty dollars (that hurt) I am no longer a member of Verizon. It was a huge hit on the wallet but I'll be saving over six hundred dollars in the long run. That will be the last time I ever have a phone that is under contract with a major carrier.

...I have to wonder if Billy Beane out in Oakland knows what he is doing when he traded away Josh Donaldson because getting Brett Lawrie in return is no prize. But this guy has surprised a lot of people in the past with his moves so that has me thinking he knows something we don't.

...I think I have seen the catch by Odell Beckham, Jr of the Giants in just about every angle that they had and I still can not believe how he managed to catch the ball and then hold on to it. No doubt about it, it was a fantastic catch but then when people started calling this the greatest catch in NFL history that is when they lost me. As good as it was I wouldn't call it that because I was spoiled by watching Fred Biletnikoff make these kind of catches for Oakland for a long time. That guy had the best hands I ever saw.

...There's a story about Biletnikoff that I would love to tell him if I ever had the honor to meet him. Because of Fred Biletnikoff my mother almost killed me. He used to use something called Stickum when he played. If he was playing today he wouldn't be able to use it because the NFL banned the use of it in 1981 after another Raider, Lester Hayes, used the sticky stuff a little too much on his arms, hands and uniform. Anyway, Biletnikoff was one of my favorite Raiders and we used to play football at a nearby school almost every day in the fall and winter and we all wore the gear from our favorite teams. One day I got the idea of using stickum the next time we played but the problem was I didn't know where to buy the stuff. I even called up a sporting goods store and asked the guy if he had any stickum for sale but he was no help since he didn't know what the hell I was talking about. I called a few more stores and I got no where with them too. After a couple of days I was just about to give up and it was my sister who indirectly helped me out. She had to go to the store to get some school supplies and I went with her since I had nothing else to do. While she was getting the pens and notebooks she needed I walked down the aisle just looking around and then I saw it. Puzzle Glue!! This is the stuff for when you are putting a puzzle together and you decide you want to keep it in its completed form instead of taking it all apart again. That's what puzzle glue is used for but I had other plans for it. I opened one up and put a little dab of it on my fingers and as soon as I did that I said to myself that I found my stickum. I bought three jars of the stuff and couldn't wait until our next game.

Well, I showed up for our game with my puzzle jars and they wouldn't let me play until I went home and got a towel so the football could be wiped off. Fair enough. After I came back with one of our best bath towels I proceeded to put my puzzle glue on me. Pardon me - stickum. And I put it all over me Biletnikoff style. Legs, arms and hands. I loaded it up. Every time I got tackled or I tackled someone they'd get mad because I got the stuff on them. At one point the football stuck to my arm. The towel was getting ruined. I was a Raider! Then they stopped the game and wouldn't let me play anymore if I continued to use the glue. So after watching the rest of the game from the side I went home and before I walked in my house my mother was walking out the door at the same time. She took one look at me and wouldn't let me in the house. She finally relented to let me go in the cellar because my pants and shirt were covered in glue and the towel was dead on arrival. It took her three tries in the wash to get all the glue out but she did. Even the towel got a second life. And the last thing she did was take my remaining jars of puzzle glue and throw them in the trash. The woman obviously did not know her football. I never used puzzle glue again after that game and that made the kids I played football with very happy along with my mother who for years after this took place would always ask me if I had any of "that stuff" with me after I came home.

[Kccitystar]

...So a couple of weeks ago, I lost my job. I'll go into detail mainly because I don't care and I'm still bitter about how it went down, and bitterness is kind of what's needed for me to cope. Let's get into it. It's a wall of text, and yes, I have covered my *** by replacing some names and the company name for legal reasons. I also wrote this in an email to send to the COO, Owner and CFO of the company. Didn't care whether or not the read it or how it sounded, I just wanted to get it off my chest...alright let's do this:

First and foremost, I would like to say thank you for granting me the opportunity to work for Lorem Ipsum. It was a great experience being able to help around the office and getting to know some of the employees and their passion for what they do, and although it was a short stay, I was glad to be able to make the most out of my opportunity and will take everything I have learned working at Lorem Ipsum as very valuable experience moving forward in my future endeavors.

As an IT professional, documentation is very critical in my field and can always help prevent situations from becoming more than what it should be. Since the company is a small business, I had documented everything very extensively while I was there. I hope that the information in this email can prove beneficial to the company and to the office overall in the future. I will try to be as detailed as possible in chronicling my time at Lorem Ipsum working under Tyson Richards. I will say that I am not a web developer, so my interactions with the Dev Ops team (which I will refer to when I speak of everyone under Tyson's team handling web development) were very minimal when talking about website operations. I was in no part involved with that aspect of the company. I am much more of a systems administrator, familiar with setting up networks and deployment/configuration/troubleshooting of computers, both Windows/Mac/Chrome workstations.

Some time around the end of October, about two days after I was brought along by Tyson to handle system administration duties for the company and offset his duties as senior web developer, the server in the office failed. This did not happen through any intervention from Tyson or his Dev Ops team as we were all collectively returning back to our offices after Eric held a company meeting in the 4th floor office to introduce new employees who will be working with us moving forward at the time.

As standard procedure, we quickly determined the error to be a hardware failure, and using my troubleshooting skills, I immediately began to look into what the company's disaster recovery plans were in the event of a server failure. I found out that there were no disaster recovery plans. Due to the nature of the work environment implemented by the IT Director Chris McCain, prior to my time at Lorem Ipsum, the server failing impacted the local day to day operations of the company and disaster recovery was not something that was prepared prior to his departure. I believe this may have been because of the nature of the company being in e-commerce, everything that was deemed essential to the day to day operations of Lorem Ipsum was kept online through the Cloud/Google Drive. According to Tyson, the company's e-commerce website and portal were not impacted at all by the server failure, with the Dev Ops team only missing about a week's worth of programming which they have likely as of this writing made a full recovery from. To my knowledge, after fully assessing the server failure, the data on the hard drives were not exactly in a recoverable state. The only employees truly impacted by the server problem to my knowledge were the Sales teams and the entirety of E-Commerce. Everyone who was not on a thin client machine, I was told was on an Apple workstation (an iMac or Mac Mini) and did not experience any disruption to their day to day workflow. The only critical data loss included anything that the employees may have had saved on the drives that were on the server, but upon further dialogue with many of the Lorem Ipsum employees, I am under the assumption that the employees had collectively decided to share files via Google Drive instead using their Lorem Ipsum accounts for some time due to a lack of a file server.

One of the employees, I remember critically impacted by the server failure was Nancy Morel, who had told me she had lost a significant amount of sales revenue worth thousands of dollars from the server failure. That was unacceptable to me and should be deemed unacceptable to everyone in the company.

Shortly after the server failed, Tyson's next course of action was to create a backup server that was able to preserve the office workflow, but with one caveat, that the server would be relocated to the data center where all of the web development and the website was located: New Jersey. I will say for the record that I did not agree with this decision. The only opinion Tyson and I agreed with at the time was that we were dealing with potential overheating issues by having the server in our IT office, as he believed that contributed to the server failure in late October. In this time, I will state that Eric was not yet aware of the full extent of what happened with the server and how it has impacted the day to day operations of the company. Although on occasion, Eric would pass by our office and inquire about the server, I would on occasion tell Tyson that it was imperative Eric knew about our situation with the local server. I strongly believed that due to his position as CFO of Lorem Ipsum, this can put the company in a bad position where they could lose money due to a possible disruption in the day to day operations of the company. In the preceding days, I began to explain to Tyson that because there was no backup system in place, and due to the nature of Chris' IT approach for the local operations of the company, there were very risky/problematic areas that needed to be addressed, and I strongly believed that moving forward from this server failure that there should be some necessary, critical changes that needed to take place to provide a solid local work environment and a fundamentally sound IT solution for Lorem Ipsum, not just for one year, but for several years and beyond. I then, through mutual agreements and discussions with Tyson, began to develop a strategy that would best fit the company and be financially feasible for the company. Over the course of this time, I found that the local server in the office was entirely customized and the thin client workstations have very limited functionality other than to remote into the server, and the lack of a local server as well as lack of any form of redundancy was going to be an issue moving forward should the company decide to expand down the line by hiring more employees.

Due to my experience working with small/medium sized businesses for a provider prior to my time at Lorem Ipsum, I had suggested that as a small business, it would be highly beneficial to partner with a vendor, because with a vendor, you receive a high level of support, in the same fashion as your ShoreTel phone provider, Pacific Data in the event that there is any downtime or disruptions to the day to day operations of the company. I began to contact Dell and look into a possible price quote, which included on-site support and fully functional desktops for everyone to use. I had also began communicating with Google to seek some IT solutions should the company agree on moving towards a Cloud based approach to their e-commerce business. I had also began researching backup solutions that were also financially feasable for the company moving forward. Both deals with Dell and Google have fallen through at the time of this writing due my my departure from Lorem Ipsum.

My long term vision, through discussions with Tyson was to create a solid local IT environment for the company that would be integral to their business within the office and be as flexible as possible for employees who join the company down the line when Loren Ipsum decides to expand. Due to the nature of the thin client machines, many employees had expressed their dissatisfaction with the performance of these machines, although they did not understand that their current workstations serve one specific purpose, to connect to a server that will log them into a Windows environment. Without the server, the machines will either not log in, or they will load into a streamlined Windows environment, with extremely limited functionality. Also, due to a lack of communication between IT and any of the teams within the company to address the situation that had taken place, there were many employees, such as Nancy, who were not able to remotely log into Tyson's backup server, and instead decided to simply bring their personal workstations to work and use them. This was not acceptable to me. While I was exchanging potential financial numbers with vendors to prepare to send to Eric, Tyson had been engaging in dialogue with Pacific Data to get the phone systems back up and running.

I had attended this conference call with Jordan Mills, to which Jordan had spoken about having to reconfigure the switch (the device that provides all of the phones in the office with service) on the rack in our office, because Tyson had relocated the backup server (which should have been back here in the office, in my opinion, in the first place) to the data center in New Jersey.

I had asked, "Would this be avoidable if we bring the server back to the office?"

"Yes", Jordan replied.

Tyson was adamant about keeping the backup server in the data center instead of keeping it locally in the office and looking into a cooling solution so the company would avoid having to pay to get everything reconfigured. My full intention was to avoid having Lorem Ipsum pay to get the phones reconfigured (which was not stated in the service contract, as Jordan had told me), which is why I pushed to have the backup server in the office.

It must be said that at this time, 3 weeks into my time at Lorem Ipsum, Eric is still not fully aware of the scope of what the server failure did to the local operations of the company, considering the infrastructure was heavily reliant on the local server in the office.

Prior to Lorem Ipsum signing off on a service quote to get the phone lines fixed, through talking to Jordan, I gained a better understanding of exactly how the phone systems were still able to function despite losing our server for over a month: As it turns out, the phone system syncs with the server to download a directory with every employee's extension when it starts up. Any new employee that is added will force the system to re-sync the directory with the server to get the new extensions. The phone system was still operational despite not having a server due to the directory being kept in the phone system's memory. If the phone system restarted, it would have to re-sync. This restart could be brought along by intervention (someone can remotely restart it, someone can physically restart it), or a power outage.

If the main goal was to simply reconfigure the device, I felt that I was technically capable of restarting the device having experience with these devices before in my previous jobs. I was not aware that the device would have to re-sync until Jordan told me this over the phone, as I was on the phone with him when I restarted the device. By the time this happened, the technician was scheduled to come into the office the following day, and I found out that Tyson failed to explain to Jordan that we had a server failure from the beginning and did not have the software installed on the backup server to re-sync the phone directory. In order for us to have prevented having to pay and exorbitant amount of money for a technician to reconfigure the device, Jordan had told me, which I relayed to Tyson, that we should put the device on what's called a whitelist on the firewall in the office to allow external connections to remote into the device and possibly reconfigure the device remotely.

I was told about this situation by Jordan Mills, and he asked me to try and put the device on a whitelist so he could communicate with it remotely.

I replied that while I was capable of doing so as the company's system administrator, I did not have any administrative credentials to do that. Tyson did.

I strongly feel that the phone system reconfiguration and paying a technician to do it (which again, should be stated that it was not part of the service Lorem Ipsum was paying for, so this would be pretty expensive out of pocket) would have been avoided completely if the backup server was kept locally. I strongly believe that because the phone system was already configured for our old server in the office, all Jordan would have had to do was reinstall the software for the phone system remotely. I also strongly feel that although the phone system was down for a day and most of one day (although a technician was on site), the fact that the company had a significant disruption in productivity/workflow for two departments over the course of an entire month with no one willing to directly address the problem is far more of an issue, especially when that was an issue that could have been avoided by moving the backup server into the office instead of the data center in New Jersey in the first place.

It must be said that at this time, 4 weeks and my subsequent release from working for Lorem Ipsum, a company meeting was never held to explain the IT situation in the office, although it impacted the entire workflow and productivity of two departments. I tried to push for this meeting to take place. No subsequent meetings were ever held to address what would have been best for the company moving forward in terms of IT solutions, because the old IT solution failed.

I feel like I was set up to fail from the start. I put a significant amount of time and effort working there doing things that weren't even on my pay grade. I feel humiliated and exploited for my IT skills, and I don't even have enough to pay next months bills. I'll keep looking for work though. Whatever, that's life.

[Yankee4Life]

KC I want you to know that I read every word of what lead to your dismissal at "Lorem Ipsum" and it was clear to me that no matter what you did or tried to do to help remedy the server failure at that company and the steps you tried to make to insure it did not happen again. By reading your explanation of these events it was obvious to me that the bosses at your ex-company did not care to listen to anything that you had to say about the problem at hand no matter how many times you tried to address it.

I don't blame you for being bitter over this. The only thing you should take away from all of this is that you know your stuff and you are someone that has a talent that people need. I am pulling for you to find a better job that will give you the opportunity to do your job and listen to you at the same time and I can not wait until the day that you come back in this website and announce that you got a new job.

Good luck to you.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 12-7

...Today is a special day in the history of this country. It is the seventy-third anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. This date is so embedded in our minds that every time you hear the date December 7th mentioned you either say out loud or to yourself 'Pearl Harbor Day.' It is more personal to me because I worked directly across the street from the Arizona Memorial for over two years and out of habit I made sure to just to take a glance at it every day out of respect. I used to walk to work every day but I never got too far and I have the Memorial to thank for that. Tourists would invariably drive down Kamehameha Highway and not be able to find it and they'd stop me because I was in uniform and they figured I knew. I did and then they offered to drive me down to where it was so I could point it out for them. I did this in the eighties and I probably would not recommend doing it now. All I really had to do was tell them to keep driving straight and they would see it but why walk when you can ride and nine times out of ten the tourists were hot so I did my best to give them a little of the island hospitality. I'm all heart. But every year when I was there in Hawaii I made sure to go to the Memorial on this day in my dress whites to pay respect for the men who served here long before I was born. R.I.P. members of the U.S.S. Arizona and all the members of the other ships that were sunk or damaged on that day.

...I have to admit that I have never heard of Didi Gregorius until a few days ago. I was going to ask some Diamondbacks fans on the website about him but then I remembered we don't have any here. What I have learned about him is that he can field his position and that alone will be something Yankee fans will enjoy seeing. He needs a chance. You just don't step into this position following someone like Derek Jeter because he was treated by the press like he never did anything wrong. I just hope he gets the shot he deserves. The worst part about all this was losing Shane Greene. Detroit got a good one. He may not be in the Max Scherzer class if the Tigers end up losing him over the winter but this guy can hold his own and I am sure he will.

...Maybe Next Year, Dept: Thanksgiving is about food, fun and family but for one guy in Pennsylvania his did not go as well as he hoped it to be and it was all because he got hungry. He went for dinner at his girlfriend's house but earlier in the day she had a little bit too much to drink and she went to go sleep it off. One hour turned into two, two turned into four and the guy was getting hungrier by the minute and the turkey that they had was looking more and more inviting. Checking on her one more time and still seeing that she was out for the count he decided to fix himself a plate and dig in. When he went back for seconds his girlfriend finally woke up and once she saw him eating she became furious because he decided to eat and did not wait for her. She then picked up a knife and stabbed him and then threw the knife at him, striking him just below the left eye. At least he didn't drink the last beer because then he would have been in real trouble. Instead of kicking back and relaxing that day he was hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries and the woman was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and simple assault. My Thanksgiving wasn't as exciting.

...From a report released last week, a group of terrorists were going to bomb Oprah Winfrey's Chicago studio five years ago because they viewed her as everything that is wrong with America. They managed to gather enough explosives for the job but were caught before they even made it close to Chicago. We should consider ourselves fortunate that had these people viewed the Kardashians in the same way they would have been even more motivated that they could have actually succeeded.

...A man who was convicted of molesting an eighteen-year-old girl on a flight from Casablanca, Morocco, to New York apologized in court to her and at the same time avoided jail time that could have kept him from home a very long time. This all started when he was going to a conference in Las Vegas for his work to receive an award for being an outstanding employee but he never made it there. After consuming two small bottles of white wine on the plane to New York that is where his troubles began. Either that wine packed a pretty mean punch or his alcohol resistance was next to nothing because the next thing he realized he was sitting next to a young girl who was sleeping in the seat right next to him. Since he did not want to watch the in-flight movie and opted to read instead, he tried waking the girl because she was making noises and stirring around while she was asleep. Instead of shaking her lightly or giving her a nudge on the shoulder or at the very least "accidentally" kicking her to wake her up he unbuttoned a few buttons on her blouse and put his hand under there, figuring if nothing else that will wake her up. His luck ran out when he tried to put his hand down the front of her pants because that was the same time that sleeping beauty decided to wake up and imagine her surprise to see the guy sitting next to her have his hand there. She became very upset and did not accept his excuse of being cold and wanting someplace to keep his hand warm. All this took place back in August and he had been staying in New York City since then until his sentencing last week. The judge was convinced that he acted completely out of character and instead of having him serve a jail term from six months to a year he sent him home and at the same time was deported from the United States immediately, never to return. One would hope on his return flight home he was not served the same small bottles of white wine.

...The new Star Wars movie trailer has been on the internet for over a week and while most of the comments have been positive and excitement for the film is building even though the scheduled release will not be until next December there are some people who are complaining that one of the Stormtroopers happens to be black. Incredible. It's nice to know that people have enough time in their busy day to take exception to the really important things in life like a science fiction movie.

...I can only take so much science fiction. That is, I go to the movie and see it and then I go home. I think both Star Trek and Star Wars fans who dress up and stand in line to see these movies are people that belong in the nut house but they just haven't been caught yet. At some point in time they have forgotten that these movies are the product of someone's imagination and believe they are real life or as real as anything. I'll never forget riding on a bus from school one afternoon and sitting behind two kids who were in an animated conversation about Spock's ears because one of them said they had read "a paper" on it and the other one had not as of yet. I think it was because of that why I never got too involved with these movies. I don't know who those two scholars were on the bus that day but I want to thank them.

...Usually when you leave the scene of an accident is does not hold well for you but for one guy in New Jersey there was a good reason. After striking a utility pole the night before the owner of the vehicle came into the police station the next day to report what he did and explained that the reason why he left the scene of the crash was that he did not want to deal with his girlfriend yelling at him any longer. Police thanked him for coming in to report the incident but the guy was still charged with leaving the scene of an accident and reckless driving. Fortunately for him his girlfriend decided to accompany him to the police station when he reported what happened and after he was officially charged she started yelling at him again and would not stop even when the police asked her to. Finally after failing again to quiet her the police chief turned to the guy and told him that he was sorry that he had to be charged but if he were in his shoes he would have taken off too. The woman was arrested for disturbing the peace. Consider that a minor victory.

...I'm sure that you've heard someone say when after a crazy product or an invention has been introduced that people would by anything out there even sh** on a stick. After all these years they probably did not realize how close to the truth they were because on Black Friday a game called Cards Against Humanity pulled all their products from their website for that day and instead offered boxes of bullsh** that literally was actual bullsh**. What is more incredible is that they had 30,000 boxes of this for sale and they sold out of every single one. Pay attention to those old sayings. You have no idea how true they actually are.

...Wow. Hurray. A major league umpire came out last week and had to tell the entire world he was gay. It's not that I don't care but, no, wait. That's just it. I don't care. All this proves is that this guy can mess up calling balls and strikes and calls on the base paths just as well as an umpire who has a wife.

...I am more concerned about how the upcoming winter months are going to be around here then I am wondering about if the Yankees are going to sign this guy or that guy. The former directly affects me while the latter I couldn't give a damn about since they'll end up being laughing stocks anyway.

...Professional golfer John Daly announced last week that he was getting married for the fifth time. This just goes to show there are some people in this world that will never learn.

...I was not on the website yesterday and considering where I was I would have been happier being just about any place else. I signed up for a defensive driving course and it took six and one half hours to complete yesterday and the hardest thing about it was keeping my eyes open so I wouldn't fall asleep. This only cost me twenty dollars to sign up and once you complete it you get money off your car insurance bill. Now you know why I signed up. I'd like to say that when it was all done I learned something that would help me on the road in the future but I didn't and all I really took out of it was that defensive driving means common sense and since I don't go around driving like I am in a Fast and the Furious movie I was doing this already. This course could have ended a few hours before it did but the woman who was in charge of it kept on telling personal stories of when she drove in the snow or how she backs in her driveway or the time her next door neighbor yelled at her. That's probably what started knocking me out because as soon as I got home I let the dogs out and took a two hour nap. We had to sit on uncomfortable metal folding chairs for the entire course. Those chairs are not too comfortable to start out with and when two hours turns into three they become even worse. Finally I got to the point where I had to stand up for awhile and when I glanced around the room I noticed that I was not the only one this woman was putting to sleep. The things you do to get money off of your car insurance.

...Happy Birthday to Hector over at the Mvp Caribe website. Most people know him as HFLR and he runs the place over there and does a great job doing it. Have a wonderful birthday!

[Kccitystar]

...So last week, I turned 27. As a late birthday present, I managed to secure a job doing IT support for a big financial conglomerate. It's a contract-to-hire job, and what makes this opportunity so awesome is that this financial conglomerate is a client for one the account representatives for my old IT services company that I interned at previously, so by proxy, I am a customer Another good thing about this opportunity is that I've held a similar position being an intern for another financial conglomerate down the block from this current job. I can't wait to start on the 15th. I'm so excited for this new chapter of my life.

...My lady is seeking a new job. I'm sure with her bachelors in communications, she will not have a problem with that. I told her to look into interning at a radio station, among other suggestions.

...I miss baseball. I've been waiting all off-season for the Yankees to make a move and the only big move they've done so far to date is trade for Didi Gregorious (who is an *okay* defender), and being indecisive on whether or not A-Rod will play third or Refsnyder will get a chance to play second base.

...Yasiel Puig is on the cover of MLB: The Show 15. This is probably the only time I've thought SCEA San Diego made a lousy decision. There were better candidates.

...I've thought about committing to staying in NYC for a few more years and then relocating. I'd like to start my 30s somewhere else

[Yankee4Life]

...So last week, I turned 27. As a late birthday present, I managed to secure a job doing IT support for a big financial conglomerate. It's a contract-to-hire job, and what makes this opportunity so awesome is that this financial conglomerate is a client for one the account representatives for my old IT services company that I interned at previously, so by proxy, I am a customer Another good thing about this opportunity is that I've held a similar position being an intern for another financial conglomerate down the block from this current job. I can't wait to start on the 15th. I'm so excited for this new chapter of my life.

Good luck! I hope this job turns out to be 100% better than the previous one.

...Yasiel Puig is on the cover of MLB: The Show 15. This is probably the only time I've thought SCEA San Diego made a lousy decision. There were better candidates.

Funny you should bring this up. I plan on bringing this up in next week's version here. Naturally I am not in favor of it. I hate that son of a *&$^#

...I've thought about committing to staying in NYC for a few more years and then relocating. I'd like to start my 30s somewhere else

Hey, you're not going to come up to Upstate New York are you? There's only room for one cool guy up here.

In all seriousness if I was getting ready to enter my thirties in a few years I would want to relocate to a warmer climate. You may be able to move somewhere else but in the winter time the snow will look exactly the same as in New York. The hell with that.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 12-14

...Today is the second anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings in Newtown, Connecticut. Life has moved on for everyone and the same can be said for the people in that small town although for them the adjustments have progressed a lot more slowly than the rest of the world. Not even the media thinks about what happened much anymore until December rolls around because for them this is old news. They're having more fun chasing women around who are saying they were once in the same building as Bill Cosby and now that they look back on it had he been on the same floor as they were he may have made a move on them. This sells but not the lobbying these grieving families are doing to try to curb gun control. Just hearing about this two years ago was a shock and I can't imagine how it has been for the people who have lived through this. But there is one thing about this that I don't understand and this has just surfaced recently. Some of the parents of the children that were killed have filed court documents indicating they plan to file wrongful death lawsuits. These people have gone through a living hell but really when you stop and think about it who exactly are they going to sue? The shooter's gone. So is his mother. The woman that ignored the fact that she had a son with severe emotional problems living in her house. The father lives in another state. They're divorced. Again, who are they suing? The guy across the street? Who? Some lawyer must have talked to all of them and convinced them of this. These people have been through too much. Let the memories of their children rest.

...I have always wondered how good the Athletic organization would be if only they could have held on to their players. Around one hundred years ago Connie Mack held the first garage sale that the team went through and then he did it again at the start of the Great Depression. After he did it the second time he never had another pennant winner. The Athletics floundered in the fifties and sixties but just when they started fielding another good team Charlie Finley cleaned house and when he was done all that was left was a bucket of balls and a few broken bats. The A's once again fielded good teams during the late eighties under Tony Larussa and at the beginning part of this century. Each time the quality players were lost to other teams and they were forced to rebuild. If there is one thing this organization knows how to do is start over. And with the loss of Josh Donaldson, Brandon Moss. Jeff Samardzija and Jon Lester (these four so far) Oakland is forced to do it again. The only thing I've learned as an outsider watching this team all these years is to never count them out.

...At a Beverly Hills auction a piece of fruit cake from the Royal wedding of Prince William and Duchess Catherine in 2011 sold for the unheard of price of $7,500. Granted, the buyer did get some added bonuses like the tin that the cake was in as well as a blank invitation to the wedding presented on the Queen's stationery but for that price they should have provided the silverware too. It's ironic because $7,500 is the going price that someone would have to pay me to eat a bite of fruit cake.

...The people over at MLB: The Show announced that they will be putting Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers on the cover of next year's game. And if you haven't had a chance to see it yet it is a picture of Puig from the back with his arms raised and index fingers pointed to the sky. They could not have taken a better picture to show how self-centered this guy really is although I am sure that was not their intention. Why Puig? There is no doubt he gets a lot of attention but it's the wrong kind of it. He's a hot dog who does not seem to take any instruction from Dodger management, who seem to be slowly losing patience with him. He's the west coast's answer to Bryce Harper. Young, selfish and unteachable. Puig makes one wish that Cuba would step up their security so it would be even harder to get off that island. And this is the guy who gets the nod to be on the cover of this game. What a great choice. Couldn't someone like Madison Bumgarner have been a better choice? All he did was have a good year and lead the Giants to another World Series championship. His exceptional performance in game seven should have sealed this for him but he had one major flaw. He wasn't all about himself. With an attitude like that he'll be lucky to get on a magazine cover.



...Yesterday the Washington Nationals hosted their annual NatsFest, an event where fans can come and interact with the Nationals players. Bryce Harper, arguably the most popular player on the team decided not to show up because of a grievance over -what else?- money and ended up disappointing the Nationals fans who were in attendance waiting to meet him. I'll say it again, if there is one guy who was meant to play for the Boston Red Sox it's Harper. He's egotistical, childish and selfish and those are his good points. He's the kind of player the Red Sox gravitate to and the kind of player the masses around Yawkey Way end up worshipping. A future Sawx player? Maybe. But right now he's perfecting the Boston way down in D.C.

...If I remember correctly the last time we saw Jon Lester it was in the wild card game in Kansas City and he left that game after 7 1/3 innings after giving up eight hits and six runs, all earned. And now Lester is a Chicago Cub after accepting a six-year 155 million dollar offer from them. The Giants - the same Giants who have won three of the last five World Series' offered Lester around 150 million for the same six year deal. Putting myself in that position what is the difference of a few million when he is going to be getting that much? And wouldn't you think you would have a better opportunity to celebrate in October bye playing in San Francisco instead of having your home games in Wrigley Field? To the Cubs the World Series is something that other teams do each October. Theo Epstein must have some kind of hold over Lester. Maybe he lets him sleep with his sister or something. Years ago you'd want to play for the best team in baseball. Now players don't mind playing for the worst.

...At least he didn't go back to those entitled SOB's in you-know-where. They practically had Lester penciled into their rotation for next year.

...Scott Boras thinks the best place for Max Scherzer to play next year is in New York for the Yankees even though the Yankees have not got involved in the Scherzer sweepstakes (as of yet). But Boras says so and for the Yankees to prove him right all they have do is come up with with more money than the Cubs gave Jon Lester last week and because of that reason alone I am hoping that when the Yankees spoke of financial restraint this off season I really hope they mean it.

...A young couple in Utah "canceled" Christmas for their children because as the mother explained on her blog that her three young boys were continually acting up and their behavior had become disrespectful and entitled. After ignoring many warnings the children were told that they would not be receiving any Christmas presents this year and all the money that was to be spent on the gifts were instead going to be used to buy goods for the needy. After that bomb was dropped two things happened. First the kids threw a fit. They did that because that's what kids do best so why stop now? Secondly the mother went under immediate attack on her blog from people who accused her and her husband of being mean and lazy parents, comments that did not go appreciated by the blog's owner. I'm with the parents if they felt they had no other choice but to do this but I have no sympathy for the mother who did not like some of the comments that were written about her. If she didn't have the need to write about her business on the internet in the first place the family still could have done what they needed to do to teach their boys a lesson and no one would have known about it. But she did this for attention and she got it. It was just attention she didn't want.

...And come Christmas morning when those three kids come downstairs how much do you want to be there will be a room full of presents waiting for them?

...Yoenis Cespedes drives a $367,500 Lamborghini that shoots flames out of its exhaust. In case you were wondering what for it's because he's an idiot.

...Kim Kardashian said in a magazine interview that she blamed the weight she gained when she was pregnant on God because God was doing it for a reason just to show what he can do to her. She did not explain what God she was talking about, the fire-and-brimstone miracle working God or her husband Kanye West, who just thinks he is one.

...A Des Moines, Iowa man broke his wife's nose after she woke him to give him a McDonald's McChicken sandwich. The problem wasn't that she woke him up but rather what she gave him. He told her he hated those sandwiches and he then let her her know how much he hated them when he picked it up and threw it at her. To make sure he got his point across he grabbed the bun and smashed it in her face and at some point when his wife was getting up close and personal with the bread he ended up breaking her nose at the same time. All this because of a sandwich. When Ray Rice heard about this incident the first thing he asked was if there were any cameras around.

...Travel + Leisure magazine's readers recently voted Detroit as the least attractive city in the United States and it wasn't even close. It was like having a beauty contest between Kate Upton and Sarah Jessica Parker and finding out Upton won in a landslide. Some things just don't need to be said.

...Starbucks has introduced a new pre-order app for customers that do not want to wait in long lines. It gives them a pickup time for their order and it insures that their beverage will be there waiting for them when they get there. In addition, when you get there to pick up your order and you find that your coffee is not hot enough they will gladly remake it for you. Not bad if you are a fan of Starbucks and don't mind paying five dollars for a cup of coffee that you can get for a dollar any place else. So people don't like to wait in line, what else is new? Part of the fun of dropping in at Starbucks is seeing all the snobs who think they are drinking elite coffee because they get it from there. The rare times I do go into a Starbucks I never want to miss this.

...We got hit with fourteen inches of snow last Wednesday. What a joy that was.

...Even the people who win the lottery down in Florida make that state look bad, or at least worse than it really is. A convicted sex offender won three million dollars in the Florida lottery and since there are no laws that prevent anyone convicted of committing a crime from winning the lottery he gets to keep his winnings. This is what you call turning your life around in style.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 12-21

...Today's the official first day of winter. Where I live we always get a sneak preview of it almost a month ahead of time.

...My Opening Day for my first annual winter baseball league was exactly one week ago. I decided to start this up to help me pass the time in the upcoming winter months around here because if winter is as bad as the storm we had last week I have a feeling I will be inside the house a lot. I'm going old school for this 154 game season as I will be using Tony Larussa Baseball II instead of Mvp 2005 and there's a very good reason for me using Tony 2 this winter. I have tried to start some seasons in Mvp and even used the short season projector mod but it is just too hard for me to concentrate on one mod only for a period of time. I'll play about nine or ten games in the 1941 mod and then I'll start thinking of the 1964 mod and that will make me realize that I haven't played the 1927 mod in awhile and when that happens I can't devote myself to a season of Mvp. That's why I chose this old Larussa game. Gamers that only care about graphics won't even last a half an inning with this game. The game's got a nice look to it but you can tell it had its day. But I still play it. There's no way I'll ever stray too far away from Mvp.

Here's a screenshot of the Yankee bullpen. Allie Reynolds is having a good day against those SOB's.


...I wonder if Samuel L. Jackson is ever happy about anything? Every time I see this guy he has a scowl on his face and looks like he's two steps away from getting in someone's face.

...The Red Sox may hate the Yankees and be jealous of them at the same time but not even that will stop them from making money off of them. They are auctioning two different "unique" pieces of historic (their words, not mine) baseball memorabilia centered around Derek Jeter’s final Major League Baseball game which was last September in Boston's Fenway Park. First is the ball used to record the final out of Jeter's career and if that isn't exciting enough the Red Sox will be auctioning off the first base bag that was used that afternoon because that was the final base that Jeter touched after collecting the final hit of his career. They're not kidding. The sad part about all of this is that both of these items will be sold.

...Well, there's another American in North Korea and at this point you almost have to empathize for the North Koreans. They don't want the Americans there but they still come. Either they are passing out bibles to the heathen or making demands for political asylum. No wonder why they don't like us. Look at the type of people that show up there. The latest person to make America proud is a twenty-nine-year-old man from El Paso, Texas named Arturo Martinez. This is a man that the North Koreans just can't get rid of. Previously he tried to get into the country by crossing a river but before he got there he was stopped and shipped back to the U.S. He did some time in a psychiatric hospital because of this but when he got out he went right back to China and this time was able to cross the river successfully into North Korea. Martinez was asked later if he was nervous crossing a river to illegally enter a foreign country and he replied no because that's how he got into the United States from Mexico. Martinez has not been put into custody by the North Koreans because they figured why not, he'll just come back anyway. He is seeking asylum in Venezuela while criticizing America for their human rights violations. At least he knows how to keep himself busy.

...While on the subject of North Korea, I don't know if they were behind the hacker attack on Sony Pictures which by the way is a Japanese company and it starred Seth Rogan, who is Canadian and James Franco, an American. Look at that, finally someone to blame. If North Korea is really behind this they really made a mistake by wasting all that time and effort into crippling Sony because all they needed to know is that Seth Rogan's in the movie and that alone virtually guarantees that it's going to bomb.

...What a difference a couple of years make. The Angels have begun a feeling-out process as to who would be interested in acquiring Josh Hamilton from them because all Hamilton has done in Los Angeles since he left Texas was spend time on the disabled list and strike out. If those were credentials to guarantee you a spot in the Hall of Fame, Hamilton would be a shoo-in by now. They are so desperate to pawn him off on anyone that they even contacted the Rangers to gauge their interest and Texas could not say no fast enough. Someone's going to get this guy and I just don't want it to be those damned fools in the Bronx. We've already got one overpaid multi-millionaire returning next year.

...Speaking about the Comeback Kid, Alex Rodriguez told reporters that he fully expects to battle Chase Headley for the third base job in the spring. I wouldn't expect him to say anything different. Brian Cashman practically has him written off already when he said that the Yankees had to anticipate the worst and hope for the best with Rodriguez since he hasn't played in a game in over a year. My prediction is that no matter how well Headley plays the position Rodriguez will be back at third base for a lot of games next year and that's because of Mark Teixeira. Teixeira's bound to go on the disabled list six or seven times next year for major injuries like paper cuts, lack of sleep or hurting his thumb while changing the battery on his TV remote. He's had similar career threatening injuries like this in the past where he missed significant time and since Headley can play first base too, he'll end up on both sides of the diamond next year.

...I was no fan of Jorge Posada especially during his last few years on the Yankees when he was just an overpaid roster spot on the ball club who did nothing but kill rallies. It got to be so easy to steal off of him that opposing runners walked the last fifteen feet to second just to give Posada's throws half a chance. But my dislike for him did not extend to his family because right now he and his wife are in a legal battle with some con men who they are saying swindled them out of over eleven million dollars. I don't have that much money to lose. I'm not even close. I'm not even in the same universe but if I lost that much I would either be bed ridden or walking around like a zombie. The same financial advisors who tapped into the Posada's bank account did the same thing to Jose Contreras, although Contreras did not lose as much money as Posada. It's easy to say now that the Posada's should have gone to a trusted lawyer to look over the documents that they had to sign for these people but that's why they're con men. They make you feel relaxed. I hope that both ex-players get their money back. Not even these two slugs deserve this.

...There's a Methodist church down in Alabama that announced it will start holding services at a Buffalo Wild Wings to attract potential parishioners who feel intimidated by the church setting. Personally I don't understand why they feel anyone would be intimidated by going to church. You stand, you sit, you listen, you sing, you get the hell out of there. Simple. The minister of church says by holding services at that restaurant will be a more inviting atmosphere for some people. Sure it will. What better way to listen to someone preach while you are making a dozen chicken wings disappear?

...One Strange Morning, Dept: I had one odd morning last week when I was driving around doing some errands I had to get done that I was putting off. First I went to the bank to cash a check and when I walked in there was no one there. Not one customer. The bank had been open for twenty minutes before I got there but still there was no one but employees and myself. At first I thought I walked in during a robbery but when one of the tellers smiled and waved me over and since I didn't see any Muslims hiding behind desks I came forward. By the time I walked out a few minutes later there were four people in line. I must have just got there at the right time. After that I went for a haircut and where I go the place opens up at 10:00 a.m. I got there a few minutes before they opened up and no one's there. This is normal for these people because when they say they open at ten they really mean around that time. Finally at almost quarter after the only person waiting to get in there is me and I don't have the keys. I decided to walk across the street to have breakfast so I can wait for them to arrive and sure enough right in the middle of my eggs benedict they open up. Finally I am done with breakfast, I walk back over there and I am ready to get my haircut. It's now 10:45. I walk in there and the lady asks me if she can help me. I tell her I am here for a haircut and she tells me she does not give haircuts. I wanted to ask her what she does give but I decided not to. I left without finding out why a person who works in a place that gives haircuts does not give haircuts but luckily I found a place that same day that gave me just as good a haircut and it was closer to home. Lastly I had to get gas and when I got out to fill my car up there was a lady who was already there doing the same thing. But while she was filling up she had her iPad out and was leaning against her car playing some game. She must have really been into it because when she took the nozzle out of her tank it overflowed and some gas spilled on her shoes. That's a smell that takes awhile to go away and she was not happy at all. I hope at least she won the game she was playing. After that I went home because by then I had enough of the general public.

...For the first time ever People magazine gave an award to the Sexiest Woman Alive and after much consideration on the judges part that had to have taken all of two or three seconds they gave the award to model Kate Upton. I got no complaints about this at all since I would have voted the same way but did she really need to be given an award for something this obvious?

...One of the great things about baseball is that you can have a nice roundtable discussion with your friends on what you think is right or wrong with the game and steps you would do to correct the things you don't like if you ever had the chance to do so. Free agency, high salaries, steroids, inter league play, etc. Thanks to Bud Selig there will be something else but with this latest one I have a feeling that everyone will be unanimous on how they feel about it. When Commissioner Stuffed-Shirt finally steps down next month he will receive six million dollars a year in pension from major league baseball. That's for doing nothing but walking down to his mailbox every day in his bathrobe to collect his mail. He won't be serving any advisory roles for baseball because quite frankly he's done enough to set the game back many years. Six million dollars. This is nothing but legalized stealing.

...Lastly to everyone here at Mvpmods I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and no matter where you will be on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day I hope you are safe and happy. Take care!

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 12-28

...I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and that you received every gift you were asking for and that you also made someone else's holiday just as special. I got some nice stuff, mostly gift cards. That's what I get every year and Amazon and myself appreciate it a lot. My nineteen-year-old niece cleaned up like she always does. She got a digital camera and a Playstation 4. They have one of those huge hi-definition 3D televisions that go from wall to wall in their living room so she is going to have a lot of fun with that. The first day she had it she couldn't get online because of some more hacker bullsh**. She likes playing games but not sports so that leaves out any hope of her purchasing The Show when it comes out next year. She got this role playing game called Dragon Age Inquisition and I don't know what the hell she was doing but it looked nice. While we were watching her I told my brother-in-law that wouldn't it be great if there was a sports role play game? I'm full of ideas. It is either that or I am full of something else. Anyways, I suggested a Derek Jeter game for the PS4. In it you play as Jeter and your mission is to travel to all five of the New York boroughs to perform miracles like walk on water, deliver babies in taxicabs, find Jimmy Hoffa, etc, etc. In other words you do what he does every single day because everyone knows he can do anything. Just ask the New York newspapers. While you are out saving the world from itself you have to dodge evil villains like out-of-town reporters that ask tough questions like 'if you can't hit the ball anymore why in the hell are they still hitting you second in the lineup?' You will have to do all this and still make it to the Bronx to play in the game. If you do all that and help the Yankees win you can tell any woman you see to join you for a night on the town and in the morning she can do your laundry. Now that's a game. Don't tell me, I know. I got too much time on my hands.

...This year was the first time I did not watch any of the classic Christmas movies. It's not that I don't like them. It's just that I've seen them so many times I am sick of them. Movies like White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street and It's a Wonderful Life are all good movies but after seeing them for over thirty years I have had enough. You know you've seen a movie too many times when you can quote the dialogue verbatim without missing a word.

...Christmas may be the best holiday of the year but Thanksgiving has them beat every year in sports. A triple header in the NFL will always outshine a triple header in the NBA.

...Ex-Yankee pitcher Phil Hughes had a good Christmas because the Twins gave him a three year contract extension worth forty-two million dollars because of his good performance (16 - 10, 3.52 ERA) for Minnesota last season. Many people thought that the Yankees "ruined" Hughes during his time there and if by that they mean developing a pitcher whose best pitch was the gopher ball then they could be right. The Twins are rewarding him for that one good season but if they start seeing balls fly out of Target Field next season when he's on the mound they should not be surprised.

...Miley Cyrus is dating Patrick Schwarzenegger right now only because he doesn't know any better. But his family certainly does. Cyrus was banned from celebrating Christmas with his family which happens to be the famous Kennedy family. You couldn't blame them for not wanting her around to welcome in the holidays because once she starts sticking that tongue out you never know where it would end up.

...Helping out the right way, Dept: Doesn't it always seem that every year right before Christmas there is a lunatic that crawls out from wherever he's been hiding and does something that is so terrible that it makes you stop and wonder what the hell is wrong with this world? This year it was a man named Ismaaiyl Brinsley who gunned down two New York City policemen who were sitting in their car in cold blood and in execution style just because they were policemen. It figures this guy had to be a Muslim. Shortly after killing the two officers Brinsley turned the gun on himself and shot himself to death presumably to join Allah and a room full of virgins. One of the officers had two children that he left behind and their education will now be taken care of by the New York Yankees, who have been sponsoring a foundation called the Yankee Silver Shield Foundation, an organization that pays for the education of the children of New York City police officers, firemen and Port Authority employees who died in the line of duty. The Yankees have been doing this quietly since 1982. The other officer was recently married and had no children. Not a lot of people know that the Yankees have been doing this for thirty-two years now because anyone who isn't a Yankee fan only hears about the high salaries associated with them and that they are the "Evil Empire," a name given to them by petty and jealous front office member of you-know-who. This is the right way to do something for charity. Quiet, behind-the-scenes and respectful. What did the Red Sox do after the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013? They wore special uniforms for one day and then auctioned them off for charity. Nothing wrong with that but the shipping and handling charges to send the jersey to the winning bidder were jacked up over 200%. And that charge all went to the Red Sox and not charity. The only other thing they've done is let some of the victims from the bombing come out and throw out the first pitch every so often at Fenway Park. Nice enough gesture but that was it. The Red Sox do special game-worn jerseys and gestures and they make sure the world knows about it. The Yankees take care of a child's education and the only time you ever hear about it is when the media brings it up during a tragic time like this.

...It's too bad North Korea lost their internet for a couple of days. Can you imagine all the people there who got shut out from getting mods from this site?

...The Oakland Raiders may have had a lot of problems in recent years but no matter what they've been at least they are not the Cleveland Brown and they don't have the headaches associated with Johnny Manziel. To put it kindly, Manziel has had a less than impressive debut in the NFL this year due to being overwhelmed and unprepared because it seemed he was more interested in being a celebrity than being a quarterback. Even Manziel owned up to some of this and promised to be a more committed quarterback. I think a lot of what an athlete does off the field is magnified by the press. You see a ballplayer at a night club having a drink and the next day he strikes out in the ninth inning with the game on the line and the press will say it happened because he was out late the night before. Same situation for an NFL player. They're out the night before and their "focus" is being questioned on game day. I don't think this is the problem with Manziel. I recall Kenny Stabler, a highly successful and effective signal caller for the old Raiders going out each week to have a good time and no matter what that guy did during the week he was always ready to play on Sunday. The problem with Manziel may not be if he goes out and is seen doing it but rather if he is good enough to be an NFL quarterback.

...On a Russian variety show Shamil Tarpischev, who is the head of the Russian Tennis Federation, got himself in a little bit of hot water when he referred to Venus and Serena Williams as the "the Williams brothers," and added that "it's frightening when you look at them." That got him fined $25,000 from the Women's Tennis Association and he was also banned from any tour involvement for one year. Poor guy, he spoke the truth and look what happened to him.

...Rush Limbaugh, a man who gets a lot of publicity for his radio show every time he says something controversial, got what he wanted again last week when he commented on a leaked Sony e-mail that suggested Idris Elba, a black British man, should be the next James Bond. Wow. Yippie. So what??? Since when does it matter what this guy says? About five years ago I used to work part-time for someone who did a big online business on eBay. The other guy that worked there was there for many years and he ran the place when the owner was gone and because of that he had control of the radio and every day he would listen to Limbaugh's radio show. It was terrible. I don't know if there was one thing this guy liked or tolerated except for the listeners who would call in and agree with everything he said. Limbaugh's favorite target of course was President Obama. It probably still is. He blamed him for everything. People who are like this are easy to ignore because if Limbaugh stopped to think for a second he would realize that the next person to play James Bond after Daniel Craig is done with the role will be up to the producers of the Bond movies and no one else.

...Last Friday afternoon I locked my doors, pulled down the shades, made sure all my windows were shut and turned off all lights because I was upstairs in my computer room watching The Interview while wearing a hooded sweatshirt and sunglasses. The movie was almost two hours long and I think if North Korea would have just stopped to watch the movie without getting upset about it they would have seen for themselves that it was terrible. All they succeeded in doing was making people want to see it. Like me.

...Call 'em as I seem 'em Dept: You can always tell when a child actress is having a hard time getting steady work. This time it's Emma Watson, who peaked with the Harry Potter movies and then nose dived as soon as she started getting taller. Now she's doing a movie where she will be doing a topless scene. The trouble with that is that if they don't show her face in the scene no one will be able to tell if they're looking at a woman.

...Note: Defenders of Emma Watson are directed to file all complaints to IloveEmma@gmail.com which will in turn be forwarded to me and will be promptly ignored and deleted. Thank you!

...The New Year is still a few days away and I want to take this time to wish everyone on this great website a very happy new year. It's you guys (and girls) who visit this site that make it as special as it is and this is something that you prove every single day and I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank all of you. If you go out on Wednesday night please either don't drink a lot, have someone to drive with you or just don't drink at all. The calendar is changing from one year to the next and that is not a good enough reason to go out and drink so you put yourself at risk for injury or even worse. Have fun but be smart. Happy New Year and let's look ahead to pitchers and catchers reporting!

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-4

Many apologies for not posting this week's random thoughts when I usually do but last night around six o'clock my Roadrunner internet went out and they could not get a service technician to come to my house until twenty minutes ago. Everything's good to go now and I hope this never happens again.

...There's got to be a better way to break in the New Year than with Ryan Seacrest and Jenny McCarthy.

...My wife and I made plans on New Year's Eve to go and see the newest Night at the Museum movie but we ended up getting shut out. There's an AMC theater near us that has those comfortable chairs that you can extend your feet out while watching the film but I wasn't planning on doing it this time because the first time I tried that I fell asleep and when I woke up I couldn't follow what was going on. Anyway, once we got to the ticket booth we were told that there were only two tickets left and I said that's fine because it's only us two and we were not waiting on anybody else. Then we were told there was one seat available in one row and another one open four rows back. I told the kid at the ticket booth that all I wanted to do was go to a movie and not buy a plane ticket but he told me that they have assigned seating at that theater and there was nothing that could be done about it unless we wanted to wait a few more hours until the next showing. She didn't want to wait and I couldn't blame her and frankly neither did I. I think the last time I went to the movies was over the summer. It's hard to believe it's changed this much. When I was a kid and I went to the movies with my friends we never knew where we were going to sit until we got in there. Usually it was right in the middle but every so often it was on the right or left side. Now even something as simple as going to a movie is shot to hell.

...When I first heard that Selena Gomez was involved in a bit of controversy at a mosque last week I was kind of curious as to what exactly she did to get people so upset because based on my knowledge of her, limited as it may be, she does seem the kind of person that would go out of her way to antagonize anyone. But that's what happened. Gomez was in Abu Dhabi (a city located on the northeastern part of the Persian Gulf) with four of her friends and while they were there they decided to visit a local mosque. Being the tourists that they are they took some pictures of themselves while they were in there and these photos were posted later on Instagram. One of the photos that was uploaded showed Gomez posing with someone and her ankles were exposed for all the world to see. Gomez did not spray paint the walls of the mosque when she walked in there or carve her initials in a chair for posterity. What she did do was put her naked ankle on display for the whole world to see. As far as ankles go she has a very nice one although I must admit there are other parts of her body that are visually more appealing. Older Muslim men have been dropping like flies after looking at this picture and Muslim women everywhere have been getting an extra beating or two because they happen to be women and also have ankles. The Muslims complained that she is a visitor to their city and when visiting a mosque she should observe their rules and traditions when she is in there and that means covering everything up when you are in there. Ok, fine. But then how do you explain the Muslims that are in our country when they go around expecting us to conform to their way of doing things? You can't have it both ways. I hope the next time she goes to Abu Dhabi and visits a mosque she goes in there with a bikini on.

...The Yankees traded reliever Shawn Kelley last week to San Diego for prospect Johnny Barbato, a twenty-two-year-old righthanded reliever who Brian Cashman said “may need Tommy John surgery at some point." What the hell for? There are enough pitchers that pop up that end up catching you by surprise that end up needing this surgery and here are the Yankees trading for a guy who is probably going to need it. Talk about going out to meet bad luck half way. And just to show that they weren't done making stupid moves they also traded Manny Banuelos to Atlanta last Thursday. Banuelos was a highly rated twenty-three-year-old lefthanded pitcher in the Yankee organization that for some reason never reached his full potential. Personally I kind of think that the Yankees made a mistake here by giving up on someone that young who is still working his way back from Tommy John surgery and it would not surprise me at all to see in a few years the Braves turning this guy into a winner.

...The real reason why C.C. Sabathia was upset last week at the airport had nothing to do with missing his flight to Jamaica. That was no big deal because he didn't have to wait long until the next flight was scheduled to take off. It's just that when he discovered the McDonalds in the airport had closed he kind of lost it because that made the wait that much harder to handle.

...Chris Rock did not endear himself to women everywhere when he said the reason why he ended his nineteen-year marriage was that he was "just tired of being married." On the other hand no one asked his wife if she was tired of being married to him.

...With cameras all over the place how did that Texas A&M staff member expect to get away with throwing an elbow at one of the West Virginia players during the Liberty Bowl and then later a punch at another one? If Woody Hayes didn't get away with it back in 1978 there was no way this was going to be missed today.

...Things must be so bad in Buffalo that they are not even fast enough to fire their head coach or look for a new starting quarterback because both of those guys took off the first chance they had before being shown the door.

...The only way the NFL is going to deal with Ndamukong Suh is to have players on other teams start stepping on him and kicking him without worrying about getting fined for it. If that happens watch how fast Suh cleans up his act.

...Grand Slam, Redneck Style, Dept: Over the holidays a Florida man decided that it would be a nice thing to visit a sick friend in the hospital and he figured while he was going to be spending time in the hospital he may as well make himself and his friend as comfortable as possible. So to spread a little Christmas cheer he brought along some crack cocaine that he and the patient began to smoke as fast as possible just so they wouldn't have to share with anyone else that happened to come in the room. Considering what they were doing it was no surprise that they didn't think this all the way through because the bedridden patient was wearing an oxygen mask and the flame from lighting the pipe mixed with the gas caused a fire that rapidly grew out of control and the private two-person party quickly became a room full of hospital staff trying to put out a fire. Luckily the damage was limited to bed linens, the patient's gown and the oxygen mask itself and the patient himself was transferred to a burn unit. What hurt him more besides the burns was not being able to finish his crack. The gift giver here was charged with arson, five counts of possession of a controlled substance, possession of drug paraphernalia and possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. At least his heart was in the right place.

...Grand Slam, Redneck Style, Dept (Part Two):Why not one more Florida story before I move on? If they had a reality show just about what these people do down there each week the ratings would go through the roof. Every time your wife or your girlfriend or your mother gets on your case by telling you that you need to shape up all you have to do is have them watch a few episodes of Florida's Finest and they'll see that you aren't so bad after all. Driving under the influence is a problem all across the country but down in the Sunshine State they leave no room for interpretation as to how impaired they really are. A Tampa motorcyclist was taking a spin on his Harley last week and because he had a few too many he crashed his bike into a parked Florida Highway Patrol vehicle. He may have been drunk when he hit the parked patrol car but he wasn't drunk enough to hang around and wait for someone to come out to see what he did. So he stumbled back on his bike and sped off down the road but he didn't get that far because he was still sloshed. Since he could not find another police car to hit he pulled over and waited until his head stopped spinning and that was long enough for the police to catch up to him. He was arrested for DUI and leaving the scene of a crash and also for careless driving and having no proof of insurance. This all took place over the Christmas weekend, around a week ago. I don't want to imagine what this guy would have done had he been loose on New Year's Eve.

...Oh those zany Muslims, Dept: Saudi Arabia is sending two women to a court established to try terrorism cases because of their defiance of a ban on females driving motor vehicles. This is what a terrorist activity is defined as to these people. All these two women were doing was driving a car from one place to another and because of that they've been sitting in a jail cell for nearly a month. They didn't get in any accidents with another vehicle or hit any pedestrians. They didn't bother any camels or wake the head-choppers, snipers or kidnappers when they were trying to rest. All they were doing is driving. I can't figure out if Muslims hate their women or are deathly afraid of them. The only thing that is clear is that they can't do anything independently.

...Using your Noodle, Dept: On a charter flight from Bangkok, Thailand to Nanjing, China a Chinese couple got into a heated fight with the flight crew all because they learned that they were to be seated separately during the trip. Even when the attendants rearranged the seating to put the couple together it was too much, too little and too late to appease the couple as they refused to calm down. They were so upset that they threw their meal, which was a cup of hot noodles, right in the face of one of the hostesses, burning her bad enough that she had to go to the hospital for treatment after the plane was turned around. The couple was not immediately detained once they were kicked off the plane and Chinese authorities are still considering whether to prosecute them for their disruptive behavior. What are they waiting for, to see if they do it again? If this was the U.S. there would be a small army of cops ready to grab them as soon as they stepped off the plane and as far as those two being prosecuted here they would not have to wonder about that too much. Remember when air travelers had to take their shoes and belt off before passing through the screeners just because some Osama-loving Muslim tried to get away with something there? The same thing could happen here. Some copycat in this country is going to think of a way to burn the in-flight help a lot worse than using his noodles and before long anything that is served hot on flights will be a thing of the past, like common sense.

[DJEagles]

I am ready for Spring Training. That is all.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-11

...What I liked most about last week's Hall of Fame announcements was that the four cheaters (Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa) did not even get close to being elected. Forget about their statistics. It's how they got them. I'm glad Craig Biggio made it along with John Smoltz and Randy Johnson was a shoo-in. Pedro Martinez got voted in somehow but then again you can't have everything. I was planning on a trip to Cooperstown this year but with Martinez being elected it's going to be infested with Red Sox fans who will act like they own the whole damn town. The last time the Sox fans were in Cooperstown was six years ago when Jim Rice got in and the only way the town got rid of all of them then was to stop selling liquor. Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell got shut out again and if I was a voter they would have received one from me. In a way they did because for the second straight year I was able to take part in a voting process run by Jaxen, who is a member of our website. Three of the four guys that got in this year I voted for with Martinez being the exception. I have my reasons.

...Another guy who didn't get elected was Curt Schilling and since he's Curt Schilling he knows exactly why. He pointed out that the only reason why John Smoltz got in and he didn't was because Smoltz is a Democrat and he is a Republican. That cleared that up and it make perfect sense for no one except for Schilling. He played twenty years in the major leagues and only four with Boston but the way he complains and makes excuses you'd swear he played his entire career with the Red Sox.

...When I first heard of Charlie Hebdo I thought the news people were talking about a person. I didn't know it actually was a French weekly satirical newspaper and what they were famous for was their popular cartoons about the Prophet Muhammad. The cartoons must have really hit home because a bunch of Muslims stormed the place last Wednesday and killed twelve people that worked there, including the editor of the paper. With everything that has happened in recent years is this really surprising to anyone? These butchers killed a dozen people over cartoons. Think about that for a minute before I go on. When are we all going realize that it is time to declare war on Islam? It seems like every time you turn your head one of those bast**** are starting something. These people get worked up and offended faster than a group of old ladies. And I don't want to hear that the people that do this are only a small sample of what the Muslim community is, etc, etc, ad nauseam. Where were the peaceful Muslims after this happened? They were so quiet that they didn't even organize any protests about the killings at Charlie Hebdo. Sure, they were quiet. They were in their house having a party. This is getting so out of control that I would not be upset at all if all the Muslims in the United States, Canada, England and France are all rounded up and thrown on a ship to take them back to Syria or wherever the hell they came from. That way if they feel like they want to kill someone they'll be killing a fellow Muslim and will be doing the world a favor at the same time. I have no doubt that some people will have as much objection to what I just wrote as compared to what happened in Paris and that's really a shame. I wasn't born feeling the way I do about Muslims. Their actions and total disregard for life and human compassion have made me feel the way I feel about them. Whenever Muslims are around bloodshed is not too far behind. We still haven't caught that guy who was having so much fun chopping off people's heads. He hasn't done it in a while so he must be getting antsy. And now these people. Many families in France will never be the same because of some cartoons. Islam is the religion of peace? Don't believe it and don't laugh too hard the next time someone tries to tell you that.

...I can tell that the Dallas Cowboys are getting back to their old selves and it has nothing to do with their won-loss record. I have hated this team for a very long time and it dates back to the Tom Landry days with Roger Staubach, Drew Pearson and the rest of those lucky SOB's. Back then when you played the Cowboys and you had a slim lead late in the game you knew anything could and would happen. The officials would throw a flag at just the right time and it would turn the game around in their favor. Did your team just run for a fifty yard touchdown to make it a two score game? Forget it, it's going to get called back on a holding call. Or how about when it's third and long and Dallas desperately needs a first down? Staubach will go back to pass and before you can say North Dallas Forty there's going to be a pass interference call and the Cowboys will score and win the game. Ask veteran Vikings fans about what Dallas pulled in Minnesota during the 1975 NFL playoffs. I watched that game and even though the Vikings were dominating Dallas all game they only had a slim 14 - 10 lead and with that lead against that team you knew anything could happen and it did. With less then thirty seconds left in the game Staubach, who must have been born with a silver spoon in his mouth, threw a fifty-yard touchdown pass to Drew Pearson that I can still see in my mind's eye as clear as day. The replays showed Drew Pearson pushing off cornerback Nate Wright of Minnesota and when a flag was thrown I had a moment's hope of having it called on Dallas but I should have known better because Wright was called for interference. And now almost forty years later the Lions know how it feels.

...The New Era Cap company gave David Ortiz his very own custom hat featuring a likeness of him doing his signature skyward point after every home run. If New Era was going for the gaudy and ugly look then I am here to tell you that they nailed it. Since the only photos of Ortiz that I allow in this thread are of when he is hit by a pitch I will not be posting a photo of it but if you are curious to see for yourself then just follow this link right here. Like I said, this is a custom hat made only for Ortiz and is not available for sale for any other damn fool out there (Red Sox fans) who wants it but if it ever became available to the public it would be in high demand for street gangs everywhere.

...Stephen Drew had a whopping .162 batting average last year but that didn't stop him from getting a one-year five million dollar contract for this upcoming season. Naturally the Yankees were the team that gave him all this money. They're probably hoping he makes a comeback and hits .220 for them.

...You will find no one that will disagree with you when you say that Alex Rodriguez has done more than his share of things to earn himself a lifetime of scorn and ridicule. Just the very sight of him this year will make him an easy target for every writer covering the Yankee beat. And that's exactly what's going to happen once the season starts. All that Jeter love we saw last year is going to be replaced by the constant booing of fans every time Rodriguez pops his head out of the dugout. If they want to boo him for what he did that's fine. At least they have a reason. But don't get on his case when he's not doing anything wrong. Last week he posted pictures of himself working out by taking batting practice and fielding ground balls and when one of the New York writers saw it he accused Rodriguez of trying to make trouble for the Yankees. In what way? He's still a player and he's missed a full year so getting started early with some spring drills will benefit him and in turn the Yankees. What's wrong with that? Would they rather have pictures of him going bar hopping with Johnny Manziel?

...A woman in Boston was arrested for bombarding a local police precinct with uncooked bacon and pork sausage because she said God told her to go there to "feed the pigs." You know, I've been saying for years that there are nothing but a bunch of animals in that city and people tend to think I am just exaggerating but this just confirms it even more.

...By now everyone has heard about that two-year-old boy in Idaho who accidentally shot and killed his mother after reaching into her purse and pulling out the gun that she had in it. The child, thinking it was some kind of toy, pointed it at his mother and the worst thing you would expect to happen did. I feel bad for this kid because there is no way to know how he is going to handle what he did when he gets older and understands what happened. The mother was twenty-nine-years-old and while you hate to pass judgment here you still have to wonder what the hell she was thinking by having her toddler in the shopping cart with her purse knowing that she had a gun inside of it? The victim's father-in-law, who must have been too blinded with grief to think straight described her as someone who was "not the least bit irresponsible." Right. Because responsible people let their two-year-olds handle their purse with a gun inside of it with the safety off. R.I.P. Mother of the Year.

...The city of Denver is finding out their homeless population is growing steadily because of legalized marijuana in Colorado. The older homeless people arriving there are coming for medical reasons and the younger ones are coming just because it's legal. Who didn't see that coming? The next thing that will happen is that some city will round up their homeless and throw them on a bus with a few bucks in their pocket with instructions to get off in Denver and have a good time.

...A nationwide atheist group called the Freedom from Religion Foundation is threatening to file a lawsuit against a Georgia public school district because bibles were being distributed to elementary school students. Their complaint was that by giving the bibles away to these children they feared that these kids would have become a captive audience to the teachings of the bible because they were so young and impressionable. You can't have that. If you get kids believing in God at a young age you might run out of atheists in the future and what are you going do then? What actually happened here was that representatives from the Gideons were the ones who passed out the bibles to the kids and not the school district. This is what the Gideons do, they pass out bibles. They have so many that they left one behind in every room in all the hotels and motels across the country. The next time you go on vacation when you are in your hotel open the drawers and eventually you'll find a bible and you'll know that the Gideons were there before you. Since the Freedom for Religion people couldn't fight the Gideons head-on they targeted the school district since they knew they could scare them without breaking a sweat. I'd like to see how fast they blow the whistle when they find out someone is passing out the Koran to junior high students.

...The recent drop in gas prices have put a big smile on everyone's face and even though I don't get gas as much as the next guy it still is a nice feeling not having to pay fifty dollars or more every time I fill up. But there is still one thing I don't understand and that's gas prices in different areas of the city. If I drive twenty minutes south of where I live I can get gas seven cents cheaper a gallon. Same city, same company (Sunoco) but different price. What's even more incomprehensible is the two Sunoco stations five minutes away from my house that are literally across the street from each other. The station that has west bound traffic is selling gas for $2.77 a gallon but if you are on the same road driving east you'll be paying $2.75. This makes no sense at all.

...That same day that I got gas it was four degrees outside and the wind chill was so bad that it was better not even knowing it. Halfway into it when I was filling up the tank my hands were starting to get numb and that's when you start dancing around a little to try and keep warm. I was so cold when I got done I had to go inside and buy a cup of coffee. When I was driving home I saw a guy walking with a T-Shirt and pair of shorts on and I swear to God this is not the first time I have seen people do this in this kind of weather. You really have to live in the cold area of the country to really appreciate what I am trying to explain here. If you live in Arizona or Florida and are curious about what I'm saying here just go into a walk-in freezer and stay in there for about twenty minutes without getting out once. Then you'll get an idea of how it is but without the wind of course. This is the kind of weather when you let the dogs out they find a spot right away and go and then they come back to the door without having you call them. But I see people all the time walking around like it's the middle of summer instead of the beginning of January. Maybe it's some kind of club. Every time I see one of them I say to myself that it "must be another person from Massachusetts" and I laugh all the way home.

[sabugo]

Regarding the Charlie Hebdo killings and the whole muslim religion being a peace religion my take is this:

- These islamic extremists are around 600 years behind on the whole human evolution thing. Christians already did this 'let's kill everybody who isn't christian, let's force feed our religion to all the non-believers of the world and somehow save them from whatever hell they're bound to go if they don't stay on our side'. Christians did this. Six hundred years ago. Then they evolved, and now only have backwards views on harmless little things such as birth-control, homossexuality and child abuse - but this is another matter.

- The vast majority of muslims I know are in fact peaceful and have nothing to do with these terrorists. Then we have a minority of loud, retrograde and violent idiots who cast a shaddow on the rest of the muslims who couldn't care less about bombs and holy wars. Really, they just want to go on about living their own lives, but they're forever tarnished by these actions.

- This is not to say that I 'understand' or 'excuse' this type of behaviour. Any act of senseless violence is shameful. But to me, in Europe, we've been far to permisive and have given far too many rights to people who don't respect, deserve or use them properly. My take on these people, wheter they're muslim, christian, gypsies or red sox fans is to send them the hell back to where they came from and please, with sugar on top, keep them there. Or else, the **** is bound to hit the fan on a very near future and we'll have a WW3 on our hands. Let them kill each other and don't allow them anywhere near civilized people, because this is the real issue, civilized vs uncivilized people.

- You don't like the way you live? Well, the planes go both ways, you know? Go back to wherever you came from and stay there. It's not like we travel to your countries and demand that you celebrate Christmas, that your women wear short-skirts and force you to eat pork. And guess what, when we - the civilized people - point this out, we don't go crazy claiming that you don't respect our beliefs and crying 'racism'. We merely understand that you are a backwards, underdeveloped, uncivilized, dumb people. Now please explode yourselves and get by all means get your 70 virgins. If you only knew the hard work it takes to convince just one to sleep with you, you'd much rather stay alive.

(I know I sound a little angry. It happens when your relatives were friends with some of the victims)

[dennisjames71]

Sabugo, that was sincerely one of the best posts I've ever read concerning those issues. I appreciate your informed, mindful, and objective points on "the big picture" of these problems. I have many relatives in the Philippines that are affected (to a lesser extent) by the Muslim radical factions based mostly in the south of the country and it's a slowly growing problem. I enjoyed all of your points sir. Thank you.

[Yankee4Life]

Regarding the Charlie Hebdo killings and the whole muslim religion being a peace religion my take is this:

- These islamic extremists are around 600 years behind on the whole human evolution thing. Christians already did this 'let's kill everybody who isn't christian, let's force feed our religion to all the non-believers of the world and somehow save them from whatever hell they're bound to go if they don't stay on our side'. Christians did this. Six hundred years ago. Then they evolved, and now only have backwards views on harmless little things such as birth-control, homossexuality and child abuse - but this is another matter.

Excellent point sabugo. I am in no way saying that Christians have their hands clean but this happened six hundred years ago. What the hell can anyone do about it now? And since I don't see Catholics or Baptists or anyone else stringing people up forcing others to worship like they do this isn't something to worry about anymore.

- The vast majority of muslims I know are in fact peaceful and have nothing to do with these terrorists. Then we have a minority of loud, retrograde and violent idiots who cast a shaddow on the rest of the muslims who couldn't care less about bombs and holy wars. Really, they just want to go on about living their own lives, but they're forever tarnished by these actions.

I am going to have to take your word for this Sabugo because I personally do not know any Muslims and at this point I don't want to know any. I don't care how it sounds but after all that has happened I don't trust them.

- This is not to say that I 'understand' or 'excuse' this type of behaviour. Any act of senseless violence is shameful. But to me, in Europe, we've been far to permisive and have given far too many rights to people who don't respect, deserve or use them properly. My take on these people, wheter they're muslim, christian, gypsies or red sox fans is to send them the hell back to where they came from and please, with sugar on top, keep them there. Or else, the **** is bound to hit the fan on a very near future and we'll have a WW3 on our hands. Let them kill each other and don't allow them anywhere near civilized people, because this is the real issue, civilized vs uncivilized people.

Agreed 100%

- You don't like the way you live? Well, the planes go both ways, you know? Go back to wherever you came from and stay there. It's not like we travel to your countries and demand that you celebrate Christmas, that your women wear short-skirts and force you to eat pork. And guess what, when we - the civilized people - point this out, we don't go crazy claiming that you don't respect our beliefs and crying 'racism'. We merely understand that you are a backwards, underdeveloped, uncivilized, dumb people. Now please explode yourselves and get by all means get your 70 virgins. If you only knew the hard work it takes to convince just one to sleep with you, you'd much rather stay alive.

I think this right here was my favorite part of your post. I literally clapped after I read it.

Isn't it funny? You can't name one person that you know that decided to uproot themselves or their family to go live in Syria or Pakistan or whatever toilet country these people come from. No, these people come to Europe and North America and instead of learning how to adjust to how life is here they want us to adjust to them. That's not happening with me.

(I know I sound a little angry. It happens when your relatives were friends with some of the victims)

I'm sorry to find this out. I feel for you.

Sabugo, that was sincerely one of the best posts I've ever read concerning those issues. I appreciate your informed, mindful, and objective points on "the big picture" of these problems. I have many relatives in the Philippines that are affected (to a lesser extent) by the Muslim radical factions based mostly in the south of the country and it's a slowly growing problem. I enjoyed all of your points sir. Thank you.

He did a good job, didn't he?

[Jim825]

...That same day that I got gas it was four degrees outside and the wind chill was so bad that it was better not even knowing it. Halfway into it when I was filling up the tank my hands were starting to get numb and that's when you start dancing around a little to try and keep warm. I was so cold when I got done I had to go inside and buy a cup of coffee. When I was driving home I saw a guy walking with a T-Shirt and pair of shorts on and I swear to God this is not the first time I have seen people do this in this kind of weather. You really have to live in the cold area of the country to really appreciate what I am trying to explain here. If you live in Arizona or Florida and are curious about what I'm saying here just go into a walk-in freezer and stay in there for about twenty minutes without getting out once. Then you'll get an idea of how it is but without the wind of course. This is the kind of weather when you let the dogs out they find a spot right away and go and then they come back to the door without having you call them. But I see people all the time walking around like it's the middle of summer instead of the beginning of January. Maybe it's some kind of club. Every time I see one of them I say to myself that it "must be another person from Massachusetts" and I laugh all the way home.

I assume you were paying a compliment to those of us who live in Massachusetts, commending us for our heartiness and our tolerance for cold weather. That's what you were doing, right?

[Yankee4Life]

I assume you were paying a compliment to those of us who live in Massachusetts, commending us for our heartiness and our tolerance for cold weather. That's what you were doing, right?

How did you know? I was trying to hide my admiration for the people who can deal with this kind of weather so defiantly. I must disguise this a lot better in the future.

[sabugo]

Thanks for the words guys.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-18

...There is a possibility that Miguel Cabrera will get a late start to the season after having surgery in October to remove bone spurs from his right ankle. Right now he's wearing a walking boot until at least until mid-February which for him is perfect timing because he will miss the start of spring training and if he plays his cards right and limps around long enough down in Florida he may get Tiger management to put him on the disabled list once the season begins because as everyone knows, it's pretty cold in April for Tiger home games. Tiger fans should worry because once he "heals" something else will miraculously come up that will prevent him from breaking a sweat. The only good thing about Cabrera wearing that boot is now his wife has a better than average chance to get away from him when it's time for her morning beating.

...If you have not seen the fly-through preview for the new stadium the Atlanta Falcons will be playing in in two years do yourself a favor and check it ">right here. The first thing I thought of was that you had better bring plenty of currency with you when you go there because you can expect to leave it there and secondly I wonder how a team like the Raiders must feel after seeing this?

...The lawyers for the Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (yeah, he actually has some) asked the judge to suspend jury selection in his trial for at least a month because of the Charlie Hebdo incident in France because that has once again placed the 2013 marathon bombing at the center of attention. I don't know what these lawyers are trying to prove because these bombings have forever affected the lives of the victims on that April day nearly two years ago along with the entire city of Boston, whose unity and resolve as a city impressed the entire country. My point is what is one month going to do? Fortunately the judge rejected this request. We could learn something from the French here because none of those three terrorists there got anywhere near a trial. They got rid of them right then and there. The same thing can still be done with Tsarnaev. They can drive him out to some woods in New England and let him loose with an ankle monitor on him that he is unable to get off. Give him a five minute head start and then go after him with long range rifles. That should terrify him plenty but since he's a terrorist he should be accustomed to the feeling of getting as much a chance to get away as the victims he and his brother killed.

...Some Islamist hackers attacked over one thousand French websites after the Charlie Hebdo attack and posted anti-French and pro-Islam messages on the main page of the sites. At least the North Koreans can't be blamed this time. This was done to the French as simply an annoyance because no matter how many times you hack a website you can not actually kill anyone this way and when you can't pile up a body count the Muslims simply are not happy.

...I spent some of my Amazon gift card that I got last month for Christmas when I bought the complete series of Magnum, P.I. Besides being a big fan of the show in real life I am almost a dead ringer for Tom Selleck if you overlook the fact that he is almost a foot taller than I am and has a moustache.

...The Yankees hired a brand new hitting coach last week and for the first time in their history they also hired an assistant hitting coach. That way when things go wrong this time they can fire two people instead of just one.

...David Price avoided an arbitration hearing by signing a one-year contract with Detroit for $19.75 million. Price was an average pitcher at best for Detroit last year. The Tigers got to be desperate to keep some pitching because next year at this time Price could be signing a bigger contract than the one he just finished signing and the next time it could be with another team.

...The Joys of Winter, Dept: I was getting out of my car one day last week. It was a bitterly cold day and the wind was so strong that all I had to do was glance at the houses nearby me to tell if their screen door was not shut properly because the ones that weren't were making noises like they were going to break at any moment. I did not stay out any longer than I had to but just as I was turning to go back in my garage I saw a Christmas tree rolling down the road aided by the strong wind and not far behind the tree was a guy trying to chase it down but he was losing ground fast. Despite the cold I had to see this through because I had to see how far the tree would end up traveling and if the guy would end up getting it or stop and say the hell with it and go home. Luckily for him the wind shifted and the tree veered off to the left and hit a parked mail truck where it stopped and traveled no more. That was the only way that guy ended up catching up to that tree and if it wasn't for that truck the tree would have pulled away and won going away. I give the man credit for not giving up because if it were me I would have stopped and waved goodbye and walked home.

...Many times when things happen in real life I say to myself that if you saw it on TV you'd never believe it possible. But people never cease to amaze and all you have to do is pay attention and see. Take for instance that woman in California who went to her ex-boyfriend's house for a visit. She arrived, knocked on the door, got no answer, waited a bit, tried again and got the same result. At that point she should have got the hint that no one was home and should have just left to try again at another time or at the very least if she had her phone with her, call him up to let him know she was there. Instead she remembered that he had a chimney in his house and since the chimney starts up at the roof and ends in the living room she decided that was her way in the house. What an inspiring idea. Somehow she made it on top of the house and just to be sure to eliminate any problems on the way down she removed all her cloths before climbing in the chimney. It turns out the guy was home but he was asleep because he had to go to work the next day and when he woke up to begin his day he heard cries for help coming from inside the chimney. He tried to free her by himself but was unable to so the fire department was called and it took them two hours to free her and that involved busting the entire fireplace open, which now has to be rebuilt. This actually happened and it's still hard to believe. This is probably one of the reasons why she is that guy's ex-girlfriend.

...And one more, although luck wasn't with this guy at all. A man decided to go camping but since it's January and it's too damn cold outside in Delaware this guy checked into a motel and set up a tent on top of the bed in the motel room and was found dead when employees went to check on him because it was past his check-out time. The tent that he was in was surrounded with propane canisters and that may have contributed to his death. When I read about stuff like this the first thing I ask myself is what the *$@% were they thinking? You want to go camping? Fine. Go pretend you're Daniel Boone when the weather improves But when you check into a hotel leave your camping equipment in the car. Chalk this one up in the dumbass column.

...Can't help themselves, Dept: Summertime may be a distant memory and something that we can not wait for to come back but right now down in Australia it is their summer season and that means a lot of time at the beach for residents and tourists alike. Unfortunately for over a week now there have been several popular beaches in the Newcastle, New South Wales area that have been closed because of the sighting of an enormous great white shark. Arial shots of the shark have measured it being sixteen feet long and it has been estimated to weigh around 3,700 pounds. But despite knowing how big of a shark it is many people have chosen to ignore the posted warning signs and have gone wading, surfing, or paddling in the closed-off areas because as some of them explained "it's hot out and they want to go in the water." No matter what you do you can not save people from themselves but since God watches over small children and idiots maybe these people have a fighting chance after all. At least I hope so.

...Sony is coming out with a new Walkman that will be released in the spring in Europe. When I found this out my ears perked up because I've owned Walkmans before in the past. This new one is made out of solid aluminum alloy and packed with gold-plated copper wiring and circuitry. As soon as I read that I knew this thing was going to be expensive. It has support for mp3 files, FLAC, Lossless and many more and with 128 gigs of disk space you will have a hard time filling it up. At least I would. The battery in this new device has thirty-three hours of high-resolution 24-bit music playback. Sony had me reeled in and I was ready to put my name on a waiting list as soon as it became available in the U.S. but then when I read it was going to cost $1,200 any dreams that I had of owning one evaporated.

...An actress named Naya Rivera was on The View last week and some way or another the subject got around to people's showering habits and she said that "showering more than once a day or every day is a white people thing." Wow, did that hit home. Guilty as charged. I have no idea of what the hygiene habits of her household was when she was growing up and I don't want to know but it has always been my belief that taking showers consistently is not reserved for Mr. and Mrs. White Guy. Perhaps she was afraid to say what she really meant because I have heard that if you give a twenty-ounce bottle of body wash to a Muslim it will last him five years and if she would have said that on TV one of them would have got sore since many of them can make that last longer than five years.

...Los Angeles Animal Services made a surprising discovery last Wednesday when they found an eight-foot alligator living in a suburban home. The animal has been living at the home for thirty-seven years now so it's hard to understand why it took them so long to remove it. The homeowners have owned the gator since it was a baby and when it was smaller it lived in the house with them but as it grew bigger it had to stay outside because the last thing you want to do is wake up an eight-foot alligator in the middle of the night on your way to the bathroom because the next time you go out to buy a new pair of shoes you'll only need to get one for one foot. Animal Services found the "pet" in their backyard with two cat carcasses next to it because as the owners explained gators need to eat too. The gator was transported to the Los Angeles Zoo where her diet of felines will be a thing of the past. The house where the gator lived all these years was a family residence with multiple occupants, but no children were found there. The gator probably took care of that too.

...With the AFC and NFC Championship games being played today it is not too early to look ahead to Opening Day, which will be on April 6th, seventy-seven days from now. Looking forward to that day is a lot more important to me then the games being played today and the Super Bowl combined. Giants fans though should be pretty upset with ESPN because when they released the Sunday Night schedule for the first five weeks of the season their team was not on it. They're just the current World Champions but that still doesn't matter. But in case you can't get enough of the Yankees and Red Sox on Sundays you'll get to see them twice in the first five weeks. If this isn't the best reason to get the MLB package on DirectTV then nothing is.

...Time for predictions. Make sure you read this closely so you can bet the opposite. Green Bay over Seattle and Baltimore over New England.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 1-25

...If you read my predictions last week for the AFC and NFC championship games you will notice that I was wrong on both of them. It happens. Seattle had a miraculous comeback that I am still having a hard time accepting. The Packers fell apart at the very end and I have to imagine they'll be thinking about that the entire off-season. I don't blame Brandon Bostick though for not catching that onside kick. He had so many people around him going after the ball. It was a tough play. As for the Patriots, the less said the better. Even when they win big (this time by thirty-eight points) they still have to find a way to cheat. I have no doubt about the accusation that they deflated footballs. When you deflate a football it makes it easier for you to throw it, catch it and hold on to it. Who knew? I certainly didn't but New England did and they made sure to do it. The NFL conducted an "investigation" and they determined that eleven out of the twelve footballs supplied by Belichick's boys were deflated so there could be no way that this was just a coincidence. The Patriots knew what they were doing. It's my guess that the NFL will have to do something to penalize them but I don't expect anything serious to happen besides a slap on the wrist and some off-the-record advice to not get caught the next time. It's Boston. Cheating is expected there.

...Bud Selig was at a Baseball Writers awards dinner last week and when it was time for him to get up and say a few words he must have realized that he was no longer the commissioner and couldn't ramble on about his latest idea to make money and inconvenience fans at the same time so he decided to wing it by using flattery. The trouble is this guy is as sincere as a car salesman trying to sell a set of wheels to a blind guy. When he got up there he started singing the praises of St. Louis and called them the best baseball city in the country. On the surface that wasn't a bad thing but of course he was in St. Louis when he said it. In a few weeks he'll be in San Francisco and he'll say the same thing about that city. This guy needs to be put in a home and never be let out again.

...According to Tiger Woods' agent Woods got his tooth knocked out last week in Italy when a member of the media with a shoulder-mounted video camera turned around and accidentally hit him in the mouth, resulting in the loss of his tooth. That's the official story and Woods is sticking with it. Like any story you hear there is some truth to it. Woods was in Italy to surprise his girlfriend Lindsay Vonn, who was competing in a World Cup event there but it was Vonn who surprised Woods when he was getting room service from one of the luscious Italian maids at the hotel he was staying at so for Woods it was better to blame a cameraman for what happened instead of the truth.

...I was happy to see Max Scherzer sign with Washington last Tuesday because even though the Yankees kept on saying all the right things about curbing their spending in the off season I could not imagine that you could have gathered together five people that actually believed what they were saying. Scherzer is a fine pitcher and he'll help any team that he's on but for 210 million dollars for seven years was too much. The Yankees are still trying to dig their way out of three of those long-term contracts with players that are shells of their former selves. For a few more years they are stuck with Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and C.C. Sabathia. Name one team that would want to have any one of them for the money that they are making. You can't. It's taken then awhile but maybe the Yankees are finally learning.

...Oh wait, James Shields is still out there. They still have another chance to spend like crazy.

...I couldn't help but think what Madison Bumgarner would have made if he was a free agent this off season. I wouldn't be exaggerating by saying he could have had the first 400 million dollar contract.

...Did you hear about that guy who bulldozed his wife's house to the ground? What I want to know is what the hell she did to him to get him that unglued?

...A man was arrested down in Atlanta last week because a police officer saw him eating a cheeseburger while behind the wheel. It must have been one hell of a burger to be that much of a distraction. I admit I don't eat burgers while driving because the ingredients have a tendency to fall out of it and on your shirt and when you get home you have to explain to your wife why there's mustard on your white shirt. Not that this has happened to me of course. Nevertheless the guy was charged for this and has a court date set on February 3rd to plead his case. The judge will probably say that the next time he goes out for a burger he should get enough for everyone.

...Mets fans are very familiar with Fred Wilpon. He is the owner of the team and is the guy responsible for the Mets being in the position that they have been in for the past few years and it isn't a good one. Wilpon is the guy who lost about seven hundred million dollars investing in a Ponzi scheme seven years ago and has barely managed to hold on to the ownership of the team since then. Apparently that little mistake didn't matter, at least to new commissioner of baseball Rob Manfred because he put Wilpon in charge of baseball’s finance committee. I hope he also hired someone to watch over Wilpon at the same time. It didn't take Manfred long to show everyone he can make boneheaded decisions just as good as Bud Selig was able to.

...Alex Rodriguez made news last week in the only way that Alex Rodriguez can when you mix a bit of controversy with a whole lot of stupidity. He was in California getting hitting tips from Barry Bonds, who is no stranger to steroid allegations himself. Bonds though wasn't caught and suspended during his playing days while Rodriguez was. While seeking help from Bonds makes sense on the surface because all you have to do is look at the back of his baseball card to see his impressive, but tainted numbers to understand why Rodriguez sought him out because Bonds knows a thing or two about hitting, a fact that all the steroid allegations can not deny. Keeping a low profile before spring training starts is what he really should be doing because once Rodriguez gets down to Tampa it will only be a matter of time until he says something ill-advised. Then again how is this really going to hurt A-Rod? It's not like Bonds is going to corrupt him. Rodriguez took care of that long before this hitting session last week.

...I'm really having a hard time believing this but here goes. A woman from Weymouth, Massachusetts checked herself into the emergency room last week because of sudden pain in her stomach and back. When doctors decided to give her an ultrasound to try and determine the cause of her pain they discovered that she was pregnant and they rushed her off into labor. The woman's story is that she had no idea she was expecting a child and she's sticking by it. She did say she knew she was putting on some weight but she blamed it on all the eating she did over the Christmas holidays. What about over Thanksgiving? How much did she put away then? I went straight to the the source and over the past few days I asked women that I know who had children if they thought this was possible, that the woman didn't know she was carrying a child until the day she gave birth? Every one of them told me that there would be no way she didn't know because of all the changes that go through your body during the three trimesters. Nausea that can come out of nowhere, fatigue, avoiding favorite foods and craving others, weight gain and other hormonal changes that I really did not need to know about. There's no way she would have not known. The next thing she's going to say is that she's still a virgin.

...Hold that Phone, Dept: My wife and I went to Pizza Hut last Thursday night because we wanted to try out the new flavored crusts that they are putting on their pizzas and at the same time the salad bar they have there is very under rated. Usually it is only her and I that go there but this time she brought along a friend of hers that she works with. We were there a little more than an hour but I could not learn one thing about her because she would not leave her phone alone. All I did for the entire time was nod my head at whatever she was saying or blurt out a 'Uh-huh' when I thought the situation required it. She showed my wife videos and funny pictures and web sites and all the important things you want to think about when you are out getting dinner. If the phone ever left her hand I must have missed it. She treated it like it was an adult pacifier. My wife congratulated me when we got home for not getting upset because she could tell I was two seconds away from asking the waitress for a box so we could finish the rest at home. People like this who are unable to talk to someone else unless it has something to do with their phone have major issues. I happen to believe that people like this who are so addicted to their cell phones are not interesting to be around and that is exactly what this woman was. A few minutes before we got to her house to drop her off she finally put her phone away because she needed to recharge it. I figured she probably does that every day. Then she looked at me like she just discovered I was in the car too and said to me that I don't talk much. How could I? She never came up for air. At least the asiago crust was good.

...A father down in Pennsylvania is being charged with aggravated assault after catching a nineteen-year-old man alone in his house in his seventeen-year-old daughter's room. He knew something was going on when they tried to explain to him that all they were doing was watching movies but since the TV was not turned on in the room Dad knew something was up. When the kid refused to leave his house after being asked the father grabbed a knife and cut off his dreadlocks just to get his point across. It didn't. The kid continued being disrespectful towards the man even though he just got a free haircut moments before. He was told to leave and not come back but he wasn't ready to go just yet without having a few more choice words thrown in. He kept on antagonizing the father until a punch in the face let the kid know that dear ole dad finally heard enough and it was time to go. Besides being charged with aggravated assault the father was also charged with terroristic threats. Is that what they call it these days when you are trying to get someone out of your daughter's room that shouldn't be there? This kid was stupid and lucky. If the girl's father was really mad he could have cut off something else, something that he was planning on using very soon if her father had not shown up. His hair will grow back. That won't.

...Every time I hear about a celebrity pulling the "Don't you know who I am?" card when they get into a situation that they shouldn't be in I immediately wish the worst on them only because of their arrogance. The Palins have done this on more than one occasion. So has Miley Cyrus and Tara Reid to name a couple more. Even Kanye West has been known to do this when he notices people around him are not genuflecting fast enough. The latest one to do this was Hope Solo and her husband when they were pulled over in Los Angeles for what turned out to be a DUI case. Police initially pulled the car over because the headlights were off but they quickly discovered that there was a lot more to it than that when her husband refused to submit to a breath test but based on his condition at the time police still arrested him for DUI. The people that run the United States women’s national team suspended Solo for thirty days because of this. They let the incident where she assaulted her half-sister and nephew last June when she was under the influence slide by but not this one and that's good. These are the things that happen to people when they think they are a bigger deal then they really are.

...R.I.P. to one of baseball's true greats, Ernie Banks who died yesterday at the age of eighty-three.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-1

...Welcome to February! What's even more important than today's Super Bowl is knowing that Florida and Arizona will soon be filled with the sights and sounds of baseball and for a baseball fan that is more important than what will happen tonight between the Seahawks and Patriots. According to MLB, four teams open up training on the nineteenth and soon after that all the other teams will be checking in to begin the 2015 campaign. The Yankees open up on the twenty-first and one would think with the lousy year they had last year they would have already reported.

...Get it done, Dept: The Super Bowl begins tonight at 6:30 p.m. on the east coast at the University of Phoenix Stadium and if you don't want to wait that long for football just watch the NFL Network all day because they'll be repeating themselves for about twelve hours straight. Because I have no choice I have to back the Seattle Seahawks since it is physically impossible for me to voice my support for any Boston team or organization. Forgive me but I've had this malady since birth. I really don't care how Seattle does it just as long as they do it. I'll be watching part of the game but only out of curiosity to see what Kate Upton is hardly wearing in her commercial.

...New baseball commissioner Rob Manfred seems as intent on screwing up the game as well as his predecessor did. Part of his list of priorities is to inject additional offense into the game and while on the surface it sounds like a good idea, it's the steps he wants to take to achieve that goal is what I have a problem with. Manfred said he was open to the possibility of eliminating defensive shifts because he says it gives the defensive team a competitive advantage. No kidding? And it took a new commissioner to tell us something that we all have known for years. The shift, as we all know is used when a dead pull hitter is at the plate and more fielders are placed in the area where he usually makes contact. If this idea actually comes to pass this should make a lot of hitters who see the shift all the time very happy. But then I thought of Mark Teixeira. Not even eliminating the shift would help that guy because he'd still end up popping out anyway.

...Maybe to generate even more offense they can ban all off-speed pitches because those darn screwballs and curveballs sure can mess with someone's batting average.

...Too Damn Bad. Dept. (Part One): Since the senseless killings at Charlie Hebdo a few weeks back French authorities have arrested dozens of people who have appeared to praise the terrorists or who had encouraged more attacks. Because of that the Muslim community has made accusations of a double standard that is being used against them where free speech applies to those who mock Islam while Muslims themselves are penalized for expressing their own views. The French have been busy since the attacks as they have arrested more than seventy people for defending or glorifying terrorism. Good for them. At least France is trying to protect their own. In this country when a Muslim cries wolf four lawyers rush to their aid. The complaints that these people have made have gained very little sympathy and there certainly won't be none given here by me right now. If they don't like what France is doing right now they can go right back to their Muslim controlled countries where they will see first hand how little free speech and human rights they'll have and maybe they'll appreciate what they have in France a lot more.

...Too Damn Bad. Dept. (Part Two):I have never heard of Molly White but I'd like to shake her hand. She's a politician from Texas who came under a bit of fire because of a Facebook post that she made. Believe it or not last Thursday was Texas Muslim Capitol Day and really, why the hell not? Texas has to be stuck with their fair share of these people too and someone decided to give them a day to probably gauge how many are running around. Molly White asked the Muslim visitors at the state capitol to publicly renounce Islamic terrorist groups and publicly announce allegiance to America. What an uproar this caused. People acted like this woman was trying to take half their life savings. All she did was ask these people to pledge allegiance to our country but even that simple request was too much. If they weren't going to be loyal to this country who were they going to be loyal to? As far as I'm concerned they should be thrown in jail until summer gets here and then taken to the middle of Death Valley and let go. Five minutes in that place and they'll be singing the National Anthem.

...I debated with myself for a little while because I wasn't too sure if I was going to include that last part about my wish to send those people to Death Valley because I thought it may have been a little too extreme even for me even considering how much I detest these people. But then I thought about it some more and decided to leave it in. I figured why the hell not? A religion that has some of their followers chopping heads off and others supporting those actions deserve no humanitarianism since they in turn do not know how to give it.

...During the off-season for baseball I get so desperate for any bit of baseball news that I'll read just about anything that has to do with the sport no matter how meaningless it may be. And that's why I was reading an article about Wade Boggs last week during his days as the hitting coach of the then Tampa Bay Devil Rays. Boggs drank a case of beer on a flight that only took one hour to make and the guy that sat next to him during the plane ride said Boggs never got up to use the bathroom once. I don't know if this is exaggeration or not but if anyone drinks that much beer one would hope that there would be no lines waiting to use the bathroom. All I need to do is drink two bottles of iced tea and pretty soon I got to go and Boggs drank twenty-four bottles and was still going strong? They ought to donate his liver to science.

...Because of the renovation project going on at Wrigley Field the neighborhood around the ballpark has been overcome with rats ever since the construction began. The residents say it is bad enough with all the work that is going on and all the noise and lack of parking that has accompanied the building of the new bleachers at Wrigley but the rats have been an entirely different story and it's not hard to understand why. They are walking around on the sidewalks and even on people's front porches and they're not even bothering doing it at night when it's harder to see them by. Hey, you also wouldn't know what to do if some construction crew showed up one day and took away your box seats that you've had for years either.

...An Easy Rider motorcycle convention was held in Sacramento, California last week and bikers from all around the area showed up to check out the new and classic motorcycles that were there. They were also there to show off their latest tattoos and to compare the size of their switchblades with each other. What should have been a fun get-together to catch up with friends and to hear stories about how they go about harassing old people turned ugly when one biker gang saw another gang that they didn't get along with and that's when all hell broke loose. One guy said something to the other guy and before you could say motor oil a fight started right in the convention center. Normally biker fights are held in dive bars outside of town but I guess they decided to try something new to start the new year off differently. It would not surprise me to learn that it would be the last time that city allows a convention like that to be held there. Then again what did they really expect when groups of bikers get together?

...Have you ever had someone that would just not leave you alone and would do anything they could think of to bother you or try to get you mad? I'm sure everyone's had their share of these people whether it was when you were in school or in your neighborhood. No matter. These people it seemed were put on this earth just to give you a hard time. And at times I can see the same annoying behavior from those Muslim terrorists, although admittedly they step it up a notch. When they say they want to kill you they really mean it and they do their best to keep their promise. But how many times can these people poke us with threats before we say enough? Last week one of those hooded cowards from ISIS threatened to come to America to cut off the President's head while he was in the White House and to make America into a Muslim province. I guess the last part he meant that there would be more 7-11's opening up. But joking aside, how much longer should this country sit back and listen to these people because in case you haven't noticed they are getting bolder and braver with their threats against the United States and our allies. I don't want to see people hurt or killed but there are exceptions to everything and I could care less if every Muslim over there gets shot down right where they're standing.


...I kept on hearing Reggie Jackson's name in news last week and for a little while there I was confused as to why the former Yankee great was being brought up again until I saw that they weren't talking about him but about an NBA player who plays for the Oklahoma City Thunder that has the same name. Who knew? I don't even have a clue as to how long Oklahoma City has had a team let alone know their roster.

...A five-year-old boy was given a 'child no-show' fee from the mother of one of his classmates because he failed to attend a birthday party for her son last week. The boy's family said their son was planning on attending but that same weekend his grandparents made a surprise visit and they were so involved with their visit that they forgot to send an RSVP. That wasn't a good enough explanation for the mother of the birthday boy who believed her son should have come first even before grandma and grandpa. There's a very good Yiddish word for this and it's called chutzpah and the woman who gave that kid a bill to give to his parents was born with an abundance of it. The bill itself was around twenty-four dollars and the mother is threatening to take the family to small claims court to get paid, which makes this even more ridiculous. No-shows are a part of any organized event. It's something you have to expect. Just ask any married couple and I am sure they can tell you they had a few people who did not attend their wedding reception and they had to pay for their meal just the same as if they were there. All I can say for sure is when it is time for that little boy who had the party to graduate from high school people who plan on attending that party for him better clear their calendars a year in advance.

...Fiat Justitia, Dept: In the case of Nationals outfielder Jayson Werth you have to wonder if it actually showed up at all. Fiat Justitia is a Latin phrase which means "let justice be done" but a judge from the state of Virginia must have thought it meant let no justice be done. Last July Werth was caught driving 105 miles-per-hour in a 55 miles-per-hour zone and was originally sentenced to ten days in jail because of it. Now Werth only has to serve five days in jail and what's even better for him he will be able to serve his time when it best fits his schedule, on the weekends. The judge explained that Werth is still doing physical therapy on his shoulder, which he had surgery on a few weeks back and that he did not want to upset his training for the upcoming season. And, as the judge added, he is very involved in the community. Isn't that nice? I'm glad the judge was kind enough to place Werth's personal commitments ahead of his debt to society. There you go. So when you are caught exercising your lead foot out on the highway all you got to do is have some sort of surgery done and you'll get your sentence cut in half and you'll be able to come and go when you please. It worked for Werth.

...Those Carl's Jr. ads are so good that they make me want to drive to California to buy one.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-8

...It took me about forty-five seconds to get over the New England Patriots winning the Super Bowl last Sunday. That's how much I didn't care about the game. Seahawk fans will be having nightmares about that last-second interception and since I'm not one I'll be sleeping pretty good. The most important thing I learned from this game was how nice Katy Perry's legs really are.

...If there's anyone that suffered through a bad week last week or if the new year has not gone exactly as you had hoped to so far consider this one bright spot. You are not Warren Sapp. Just look what happened to him over the Super Bowl weekend. He shows up in Tampa as one of the big shots of the NFL Network and a former player and a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. The very next day he is fired from his TV analyst job because he got into a physical confrontation with two escorts that he had in his hotel room because he had a coupon that read buy one get one free and he became upset because they would not honor it. This is the same guy who made millions of dollars in his career and still ended up filing for bankruptcy so right there you can tell that he carries his brains in his back pocket. I'm sure he's learned his lesson and the next time he'll pay full price.

...Four months ago Dallas Cowboys running back Joseph Randle was arrested for shoplifting at a suburban Dallas mall and aside from being fined a week's pay by the team his luck was with him then because he somehow parlayed that incident into an endorsement deal with the same company that he tried to steal from. Last Tuesday Randle got his name on the police blotter again when he was arrested in a Wichita, Kansas hotel when the cops responded to a call for domestic violence with a weapon. When they arrived they found a young woman with Randle and marijuana was scattered all over the room. Randle and the woman had been staying in that hotel since the Super Bowl two days prior and the dispute started because his female companion was pulling for the Patriots. His luck was with him again when the police dropped these charges because of the inconsistent stories that were supplied by the witnesses. This doesn't mean that he won't be charged with possession of an illegal substance when the investigation is completed. Right now the cops have nothing to pin on him but that could change. The Cowboys should do the right thing this time and cut this guy because I highly doubt he is going to be allowed to get off the hook again to make some commercials for the hotel he was staying at or the Wichata police department.

...How do you like that? After one of the most exciting finishes in a Super Bowl in awhile these two things take place to make the NFL look bad all over again.

...There is some speculation that former Olympic champion Bruce Jenner is going to be transitioning into a woman and what's more is that there will be a documentary series that will be chronicling his change. That should be fascinating to watch if you are fond of throwing up in your mouth. I've heard about people doing things to get noticed in order to get their own reality series (the woman with the fake third breast quickly comes to mind) but this guy wins hands down. Living in that house with all those Kardashian females must have really taken a toll on him and stripped him of what was left of his manhood. Now he's just making it official and doing it in front of the cameras for money just like the rest of them.

...Now at least Kanye will have someone to hang out with when Kim isn't around.

...I could not help but thinking that if the United States, Great Britain and France had joined in and help Jordan last week take the fight to ISIS those animals would have been so unraveled that they wouldn't know what to do next. Finally someone went after those people and I can not help but wonder what is holding this country back? These Muslim maniacs have been chopping the heads off their captives for so long now that the shock, value of what they have been doing has almost diminished. That's not to say people are less angry about what they're doing. Japan is experiencing this right now after the beheading of a popular journalist who was reporting on what was going on over there. And that's something I don't pretend to understand. If you are a foreigner why would you go there and if you are already there why haven't you left already because if there is one thing that these people are very good at is is killing and they love to give examples of their work. But putting a man in a cage and setting him on fire and leaving him there to die? That's something you see in a horror movie and never in real life until now. But that's how deranged these Muslims are. I'm just hoping that all the talk about stopping ISIS comes to an end and it's replaced by military force that finally eliminates them.

...I was reading an article last week where some guy picked the five best shortstops in the history of baseball and before I even read it I knew that Derek Jeter's name would be on this list because he's Derek Jeter. Honus Wagner was first, Jeter second, Cal Ripken third, Ozzie Smith fourth and Ernie Banks was fifth. The idiot who made this list probably put Banks fifth because he just died and he didn't know who else to include. But Jeter as the second best shortstop in the history of the game? I know I'm guilty of favoring the Yankees a time or two but this is embarrassing. Jeter is ahead of Ozzie Smith? What about Reese or Rizzuto? Or even Alan Trammell, Robin Yount, Barry Larkin and Omar Vizquel? Wait I get it now. None of those guys got a year-long farewell tour.

...R.I.P. to Dave Bergman who died last Monday at the young age of sixty-one. I saw him play for the Syracuse Chiefs for a couple of years when he was a Yankee farmhand and in those days you had no chance of being called up to New York unless you wanted to work on the grounds crew. That's why I was happy to see him get a World Series ring with Detroit in 1984. I don't know about anyone else but it's always a bit of a jolt when I find out a ballplayer that I personally saw play passes away. He had bile duct cancer, which could not have been easy to deal with.

...This is about the time in the winter that I begin to get stir crazy in my house and I decide to get out and go someplace but when I am half way to my car I am freezing all over again and then I turn around and go back in the house.

...The Love of a Woman, Dept: Lance Armstrong went on a bender back in December in Aspen, Colorado and then got behind the wheel of his SUV and hit a couple of parked cars that he mistook for USADA officials. To avoid national news coverage he let his long time girlfriend take the blame but in the course of the police investigation it was discovered that Armstrong was the one behind the wheel. Either she loves Armstrong very much or else she wants to make sure she stays around his millions at all costs. For not being truthful yet again Armstrong was charged with failure to report an accident. That's a misdemeanor and you can get up to ninety days in jail for it but I wouldn't count on him serving one day. Even though his girlfriend lied to the police she was not charged with any crime. Just being with Armstrong is sentence enough for her.

...If Armstrong keeps this up he can have a long and successful political career in Massachusetts.

...It seems every time Yasiel Puig opens his mouth he shows how much an idiot he is. Puig said he considered the Cardinals the primary rivals of the Dodgers and not the Giants, who have only won three of the last five championships. If a person can be deported for stupidity Puig would be the first to go.

...Congratulations to the Yanks for being wise enough not to sign Victor Martinez when he became a free agent a few months ago because this clod tore the medial meniscus in his left knee while he was doing his off-season workouts. Whatever. This is the guy I was expecting the Yankees to throw money at because at the age of thirty-six he was the perfect age for them. Thank God I was wrong.

...While on the subject of past-their-prime ballplayers, Josh Hamilton immediately comes to mind. The Angels announced that Hamilton will undergo surgery to repair the AC joint in his right shoulder and this surgery is expected to sideline him for six to eight weeks and in all likelihood he will be starting the 2015 season on the disabled list, something that he's been very familiar with since signing with them a few years back. This is the same injury that forced him to shut down early last year. A fair question to ask is why didn't he have this surgery a few months ago so he would be ready for the season? I have no idea and I'm sure Hamilton has a hell of an excuse lined up when someone asks him this very question. It wouldn't surprise me to find out that he did this on purpose to miss as much of the season as he could because he couldn't get around on fastballs like he used to. For only fifteen million dollars a year why even bother trying anymore?

...As the years go on I care less and less about what happens to these millionaire ballplayers.

...Last Friday was the twelfth annual National Wear Red Day to raise awareness for heart disease in women. Nothing wrong with that I said to myself and if this makes women across the country pay more attention to their health issues then whomever thought of having this day each year had a great idea. I made a donation but I'll be honest here, I could not bring myself to wear anything red. I think we all know why.

...One thing that bothered me about this "day." Why was the focus on women only? Are men suddenly immune to this terrible disease?

...For all of you who are going to be buying MLB The Show next month there is going to be a special edition released that will commemorate the tenth anniversary of the game. You're going to have to part with seventy dollars to get this but it looks like it's worth it. I can't wait to read what the PS4 people in here think of this.

...A very surprised Tennessee man was arrested for making moonshine after he advertised what he was doing on Facebook and Craiglist because he had no idea that that revenuers had computers too and could see what he was doing. After arranging a buy and agreeing to purchase six gallons worth of the flavored turpentine the man was taken into custody without a fight and without having any of his merchandise spilled, although where he's going he'll hardly need it.

...I saw some pictures of the Pontiac Silverdome last week and if you haven't had the chance to see them you can take a glance at them right here. It almost looks as if someone dropped a bomb on it. After the canvas roof fell in over two years ago the place has been falling apart at an alarming rate and if it were not for these photos no one really would have noticed because the stadium now looks like the rest of Detroit.

[GoRedSox34]

partying for a week straight after the super bowl, and this feeling will never end. what an amazing year. parade was spectacular. so proud of the organization and the city. love everywhere. peace

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 2-15

...In upstate New York today the predicted high is supposed to be zero degrees and then tomorrow our luck is supposed to turn for the better as the thermometer will jump up ten degrees. Ice on top of ice. I can hardly wait. But I can't complain too much about the situation because what we've been going through in Central New York is nothing like what Boston has had to put up with. For the third weekend in a row they got blasted with snow. It's probably karma for what they did to those footballs.

...Here we are, spring training reporting week! The World Champion Giants are one of five teams who will have pitchers and catchers report before the rest of the slugs when they open camp this coming Wednesday. I may not be a Giants fan but I respect how they operate. The Yankees, figuring they have less to prove because they're the Yankees, open up two days later. **** them.

...This week Hot Tub Time Machine 2 will be coming to a movie theater near you and if you did not get a chance to see the first one I can confirm that the movie is as dumb as its title but somehow it still ended up being a funny movie provided you check all reality and common sense at the door.

...Last week Iggy Azalea ordered a pizza from Papa John's using her personal phone number and somehow her number was released to the public and she was flooded with calls and text messages from people. Most of them asked why she calls herself Iggy because if you take one look at her face you'd call her Ick. What she was mostly upset about was that she didn't end up getting her cardboard-tasting pizza for free after their screw up but I guess you can't have everything. Honestly I could care less about her but her name sticks out for me because I had an uncle with the exact same name who is long gone now. That Iggy was a straight off-the-boat Italian who hardly spoke English but we never had a hard time understanding each other. That Iggy made his own pizza and when he did that he made enough to feed an army or his entire family, whatever came first. He died suddenly in the mid 1970's. Damn this Iggy for making me think of him now.

...Come on in, the water's fine Dept: A Japanese national was killed by a shark when he was surfing on the east coast of Australia when the shark zeroed in on him and tore off both his legs. He never had a chance. His friends who were surfing with him at the time brought him to shore as fast as possible where they tried to stop the bleeding with tourniquets but since both legs were gone the bleeding could not be controlled. The sad part is that this all could have been prevented because less than twenty-four hours before this shark scored his direct hit, another surfer was mauled by one in the same area. I get it. This was the old this-will-never-happen-to-me attitude and this guy had it right up until the time he felt a sharp pain in both his legs. The sharks must view the waters around Australia as their version of a buffet line because whenever they are hungry they never have to look far to get a bite to eat. Anyone who surfs or swims or water skies in the ocean in Australia is plain asking for it.

...Three young Muslims were shot to death in their apartment near the University of North Carolina campus last week and I am ashamed to admit now but when I first heard about this I was very unconcerned. Then after I was finished with my knee-jerk reaction of disliking anything Muslim I found out what really happened to these three people and my uncaring attitude towards their religion and their beliefs quickly disappeared and I saw them for what they actually were. Just kids. Of the three people that died the oldest was only twenty-three and the youngest just nineteen. All three with their lives ahead of them and every right to lead them as they see fit. This was not a hate crime. Instead, it was a crime of stupidity but that didn't really matter here because in the end three lives were lost that should not have been. The man who shot these three young kids didn't shoot them because they were Muslim. He shot them over a parking spot and now this guy is going to have the rest of his life in a jail cell to think about what he did to these three kids that included two girls whose beauty was only matched by the radiance of their smiles all because he wanted to park his car in a certain spot. No, this wasn't a hate crime no matter how much the media would like to have it be one. This wasn't about religion or race. This was about an insane individual who valued a parking spot over three young lives and to me this makes what he did just as bad as what ISIS is doing.

...Kanye, Kanye and nothing but Kanye, Dept: Leave it up to Smiley to draw attention to himself in any way possible and last week he put in some serious overtime to get this done. The king of self-importance has been teasing his public (his wife, her family, a few body guards and a couple homeless people) about his new Adidas sneaker collection and after one look at it the first thing I said was that he should have tried to market something else because the only thing that he proved here was that he is a terrible designer. If it was his intent to have the appearance of the shoe match his personality then he nailed it because it was ugly, uninteresting and laughable. The shoe looks to be made out of suede and and I have to wonder how quickly that will get ruined the first time someone walks around in them when it's pouring out. I don't feel bad at all for anyone who spends their money on this because if they have to have a pair of moccasins they can get them cheaper some place else. The person I feel bad for is the Adidas executive who had to tell this perpetual sourpuss that these shoes looked good and how great his design was.

And while he wasn't getting ready to hawk overpriced slippers he made sure that all the attention at the Grammys was zeroed in right on him even if he wasn't nominated for anything. Kanye stormed the stage after Beck won the album of the year award and then did an about-face and returned to his seat. He went on to give an interview and said that Beck needed to "respect artistry" and that he should give his award to Beyoncé. Beck is only a guy who has released twelve albums in a little over twenty years and can play ten instruments but still Kanye West thinks this guy needs to learn to respect the artistry. Kanye is barely even a musician and should not be let back into the Grammys until he learns that the people that attend it each year are not there to see him and his childish antics.

...According to the Buffalo News Derek Jeter was exploring the possibilities of purchasing the Buffalo Bills last year when they were put up for sale after the death of Ralph Wilson. Can you imagine if he would have been able to pull that off? The first thing he would have done is retire his number from the team and give himself a day in his honor.

...A rare coin dealer in Beverly Hills paid 2.6 million dollars for a 1792 American penny. If I did this I would not be able to get it out of my mind for years. Never mind that the penny is over two hundred years old. I wouldn't part with a couple of million dollars. I'd sell it in a minute but would never buy it. I have no use for rare things like this because what would you do with it? You'd let people take a look at it but they couldn't touch it. Or get near it. You wouldn't let yourself touch it either. I have something that's kind of rare but not in the class of this old penny. I own the first edition of Who's Who in Baseball and it was printed in 1933. I don't know what it's worth because I never looked it up but just in case it is worth some walking around money I never look at it, never open it up and certainly never read it. It sits there in a room year after year getting older. At least I don't wake up at night thinking about what I had to pay for it.

...Good news for Van Halen fans out there. They're going to be releasing their first live album with David Lee Roth on lead vocals. It will be a two-CD set and it'll be available for sale late next month. While I'll be looking forward to buying it I have always wondered why this was never done in the 1980's when they were a lot more popular.

...Whatever anyone's opinion is of Lance Armstrong you'd have to admit that he's honest. That is if he is not behind the wheel of a car. Well, at least he has been after he was caught and had no where to go. Armstrong said that if he could go back to the time when he started cheating to win his races that he would probably do it all over again. Whatever. It's not that cycling is that important anyway. At the same time though I would like to hear some ballplayer own up to the same thing. Damn straight I'd do it again. I got a 100 million dollar contract out of it.

...Pete Rose said last week that he would very much like to get together with new baseball commissioner Rob Manfred to discuss lifting his lifetime ban and for the possibility of allowing him to be eligible to enter the Hall of Fame. This guy sure as hell doesn't want much does he?

...Amanda Knox, Italy's favorite American, is now engaged to a childhood friend that she has known since they both were in middle school. There's no announcement yet about a wedding date as of yet but based on her history with boyfriends this guy really needs to be careful if not only to be sure that he is not the next one to be blamed when one of Knox's acquaintances meets their untimely demise.

...Andrew McCutchen became the latest athlete to use Derek Jeter's player's website to complain about something and this one was about the obstacles that lower-income kids must overcome just to be noticed or receive an opportunity to show people that they have the talent to play professional baseball. He gave examples of the cost involved in purchasing the equipment needed along with the fees to enter tournaments where more people such as scouts would be able to view their progress so they can advance to the next level. Because of this he says inner city kids do not pursue careers in baseball. Sounds good but I'm not buying it. Is it cheaper for that same low-income kid to go out and play football? You need more equipment to play that sport and those same kids are getting noticed enough to get full scholarships to college. Any organized program is going to be tough on kids from low income families and to say that the cost of baseball is the problem here is incorrect. The real reason why these kids from the urban communities don't play baseball is because football and basketball are more exciting to them. When you have a game on TV that lasts close to four hours long that it makes even loyal fans impatient, how are they supposed to grab the interest of these young kids? That's why they are not playing this game and it has nothing to do with the cost of it.

...Good news ( I think ) for Bronco fans. Peyton Manning met with the team officials last Friday and told them that he is "physically and mentally prepared to play at a significant level" in 2015. That is of course if they should reach the playoffs. Then forget it.