Random Thoughts On A Sunday Morning Updated To 7-28

[BigRog]

all im going to say about deflate-gate is that the report never said that he definitely knew about it and that Well's opinion was that Tom probably knew.  The other thing is that this isn't an issue with just the Patriots.  Just like any issue in the nfl when it comes to these "cheating scandals"... like the video taping, like the stick em, like deflate-gate... this is an issue with the NFL in general and most if not all quarterbacks take part in some form of deflation or sandpapering the football.  The pat's just for some reason put their foots in their mouths and get caught.  A bunch of former quarterbacks have already stated they "doctored" balls in their day... and im not surprised that a bunch of current quarterbacks are defending Brady.  Maybe because they know what goes on behind closed doors?   If he does get suspended... There is going to be some form of lawsuit on the leagues plate because no where in that report did it state their was no factual evidence that Brady did know or that Brady took part in any of this.  All just hearsay and assumption based off of Tom refusing to show text messages in his phone.

Its not like Rice where we had actual evidence when the video tapes came out (and when the league found out before the videos went viral, i believe he was still playing).  If their was video or something along those lines I would totally be keeping my mouth shut on this.  I mean at least in the mitchell report we had players testing positive for roids and we had actual evidence to call the liars out like Palmiero

edit: also, the other thing is... who cares. I mean Indy only scored 7 points.  Do you really think New England couldn't of mustered more then Seven points... even if brady sat out the whole game.  Its not like it really changed the outcome of the game because NE defense was dominate in the game

Edited May 10, 2015 by BigRog

[Yankee4Life]

BigRog that is your opinion and I really thank you for it and for coming in here and posting. I wish more people would come in here and do it too because this is not my private thread and I doubt that people here agree with everything I write anyway. 

As far as the deflating of the footballs goes I'll be honest with you. If I was under oath I would have to say I would agree with you. I was just happy that it made the Patriots look bad because I don't like them.

[BigRog]

hahaha as a rival, new englander, old time red sox fan (because i cant stand watching a game anymore, coaching and playing are totally different though) and a yankee hater... i totally respect the fact that it makes you happy they look bad.  it literally made me laugh lol.  I don't really watch football like i used to a couple years ago.  I dont want to be labled as a bandwagon... maybe im more of a home team kind of guy (even though i cant stand the celtics and nba in general).... the only thing that just bothers me about the whole ordeal is the nation as a whole calling for suspensions over this and the whole NE are cheaters thing... Its like if i posted an article saying that i think Griffey was juicing and its probable he was just because of the era.  i mean that would piss a lot of people off (breaking a lot of people idea of him as a childhood hero) and it would be total slander.  I just don't get how america as a whole can blindly believe and follow this guy when he never once said He did It here is proof.

honestly, i hope they try to suspend him.  i hope brady sues for a wrongful suspension and i hope he wins.  i think Godell (spelling?) is honestly a POS and ruining the game of Football and I hope some bs like this will run him out of the Commissioner's Office. Who knows maybe fans will get lucky.. I am one person who is not a fan of any of his rule changes.. or his trying to increase market value in Europe.  For Christ Sake, the name of your sport has a whole other meaning in Europe and you want to market overseas... Its mind boggling.  I mean, they have rugby over there.  They probably don't care about American Football



And thats why i love this thread.  you can totally give your opinion without feeling bashed.

Edited May 10, 2015 by BigRog

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 5-24

...Due to technical difficulties in the forum last week there was no Random Thoughts thread because of the problems with the website's upgrade. Trues has been working very hard to fix the problems associated with this move and has spent many long hours trying to get everything back where he wants it to be. I have not talked to him in a few days to get the latest update but I would guess he is not done yet and when we find out for sure that this upgrade is finally behind us I think we all should let him know how much we appreciated his hard work during this time.

...What the hell? It didn't take long for the Yankees to hit the skids, didn't it?

...And by the way I can not get used to those Yankee moustaches. They look terrible. Maybe now that they are not winning they'll start using their razor again.

...I must admit at first I was very surprised to learn about how hard the NFL lowered the boom on the New England Patriots but after thinking about it a little I have to say I really wasn't. The NFL has been the victims of some bad press for awhile now and that's something that they can only blame themselves for so when this latest scandal popped up they had to show everyone that they meant business. I sincerely believe that if the Ray Rice incident would not have occurred the commissioner would have been a lot more lenient on the Patriots and nothing would have happened to Tom Brady. But since it did they had to take a different route. The Patriots were fined one million dollars by the league. That's like one hundred dollars for you and I. They'll know it's gone but they won't cry over it. They also lost their 2016 first-round draft pick and a fourth-round pick in 2017. They should have lost their first-round picks for the next three years. Finally Tom Brady was suspended four games for his participation in this and for his refusal to answer questions when the interview process was going on. He should have had the entire year off because this isn't the first time the Patriots were caught cheating. He's appealing this decision but that was to be expected. I hope they add a few more games just because he is wasting more of their time here. This is what happens when they cheat, get caught and lie about it. Serves them right.

...A lot of lawsuits that go on these days are laughable and are not worth the paper that they are written on. But then you read about one that makes so much sense that you just can't help but pull for the person. There's this lady in California who had a job that required her to travel across Central California for her employer and her bosses told her to download an app for her phone called Xora which clock in and out, fill out forms and log trips while she was traveling. It also tracks the locations of all the workers via GPS while constantly sending that information back to her boss. What's more, she had to have her phone on at all times, every day with no excuse. As soon as she found out that this app was able to do all of these things she deleted it from the phone and when her employer found out they deleted her from their payroll. She is suing them for invasion of privacy, wrongful termination and unfair business practices. I hope she gets it. If these people want to track her twenty-four hours a day then they should pay her for all that time too.

...An elderly man in his seventies was evicted from his assisted-living facility located in a Philadelphia suburb because officials there found a prostitute that he was trying to hide from them underneath his bed. To be fair there is only so much TV you can watch and crossword puzzles to do until you get bored and when that happens you mind begins to wander. The guy got the money to pay for the hooker because he was able to get around by himself a lot easier than most of the other people living there so he would go out and buy liquor for anyone who wanted it while only charging a small handling fee. So it's hard to say what got him into trouble with the home. Sneaking a guest in his room so they can break in the mattresses good and proper or the booze runs?

...I finally have something that I can compare Pedro Martinez and Jorge Posada to. Both have new baseball books out and I can not put one above the other to say which one I would definitely not read. From what I read in this Daily News article he was upset and angry about how he was being played in his final season as a Yankee. He doesn't say that he was practically useless in 2011 and that if he wasn't part of the "Core Four" he would have been given his outright release that year. That's how bad he was. I devour baseball books but they have to be about people that I respect or that I am a fan of. I wouldn't read Posada's book even if someone gave it to me.

...Only in China, Dept Where else would you go mall shopping and run into a wild boar? That's exactly what happened last week when a children's clothing store had to be evacuated and locked because a young female boar somehow got in and started trashing the place while it was looking for a way out. The poor boar was completely lost because she was looking for the food court and that happened to be at the other end of the mall. Order was quickly restored in the mall when the boar was tranquilized by a veterinarian and taken to an animal rehab center. In China that is a code word for butcher shop.

...George Zimmerman's luck is so bad that if he was sitting in a room all by himself drinking coffee he would still find a way to get himself arrested.

...The School of the Art Institute of Chicago gave Kanye West an honorary doctorate for what they said was his "transformative, genre-defying work." Just like that all credibility of their PHD program went out the window. If this guy can now walk around calling himself "doctor" then we all should be able to.

...What's next, Kris Jenner for sainthood?

...And before I go any further here I want to thank the people at the Billboard Music Awards for censoring Kanye West when Dr. Blowhard was singing last week. It was the first and only performance of his that I thoroughly enjoyed.

...Michael Sam signed a one-year deal with the Montreal Alouettes of the Canadian Football League last Friday because he could not hook up with any NFL team after Dallas cut him last October. Montreal is a laid back accepting city and he should do fine up there but if he ever decides to pick up a hockey stick and taking up that sport as a hobby that's when they'll send him back to the States.

...Not this time, Dept: A North Carolina police officer sued Starbucks because he suffered third degree burns when he said that the lid on his free cup of coffee popped off and it spilled all over him. He sued Starbucks for $750,000 so they would have to pay for the medical fees and his emotional suffering. Jurors however did not agree and ruled in Starbucks favor. If this guy was looking for a quick sue-for-money scheme he should have tried something else because someone already pulled this back in 1992 and the woman that did it won a goldmine from McDonalds (2.9 million dollars) for spilling coffee on herself while in a parked car. And that was only twenty-three years ago. The public has short memories for a lot of things but not for something like this.

...A senior North Korean defector who had a high-ranking government job there told interviewers that Kim Jong Un gave orders for his aunt to be killed last year around this time. That this guy is a brutal dictator is one thing but now we find out he is cheap as all hell. If he didn't want to send her a card for Mother's Day that's one thing. But to kill her? When his family has get-togethers they must hope that he never shows up.

...Another American idiot illegally entered North Korea recently and is now facing serious charges and prison time for illegally entering the country through China. This time it's a twenty-one-year-old college student named Won-moon Joo, which means jackass in English. Unlike the other people that North Korea has detained this guy said he actually wanted to be arrested. (I told you his name meant jackass.) He said that by being arrested some great event could happen and that it could have a good effect on the relations between North and South Korea. What this event was he did not say. He probably didn't think that far ahead.

...If I were Kim Jong Un for a day the first thing I would do is electrify the fences so the idiots from America who want to make statements can't get in the country and buy a few dozen rottweilers just in case someone gets past the fence.

...A woman from Nebraska filed a seven-page document that detailed her lawsuit against all homosexuals on behalf of God and Jesus Christ. This is the last thing Bruce Jenner needs is another lawsuit on his hands because he has enough to worry about. She's serious too. She wants a federal judge to rule on whether or not homosexuality is a sin. I just hope this woman is not too offended when this gets laughed out of court.

...As announcers and writers love to point out, baseball managers are hired to be fired. Unfortunately that is true because it's easier to fire one guy than half the players on it who aren't worth much to begin with. Add to the mix an owner who is one of the worst in baseball and you can understand why Miami Marlins manager Mike Redmond did not sign a long-term lease to rent a home in the Miami Metropolitan area. And it's a good thing because Jeffrey Loria fired Redmond and bench coach Rob Leary, presumably because he did not like the way Leary was sitting in the dugout during games. The Marlins were 16 - 22 on the season at the time of Redmond's firing, which is hardly time to raise the panic flag especially when they are only in the middle of May. Loria replaced Redmond with a guy named Dan Jennings and if you never heard of him you are not alone. Jennings was Miami's General Manager which just goes to show you that no other baseball manager who is currently out of a job wanted this one. Jennings never played in the major leagues or the minor leagues. I hope he doesn't get too comfortable.

...Bristol Palin announced that her upcoming marriage to former U.S. Marine Dakota Meyer has been called off. Wether he knows it or not right now he dodged a bullet bigger than the ones that were shot at him during his time in Afghanistan.

...The funny thing about that shootout in Waco, Texas where nine bikers died and eighteen others were injured was the reaction that a lot of people had when they first heard about what happened. They were surprised and shocked that something like that took place. What the hell for? They're bikers. What the hell were they going to do when they got together, have bible readings?

...Why does the NFL constantly tinker with their rules?

...I went to Lowe's on Friday afternoon and the cashier that checked me out must have previously worked at a fast-food place because she was as smart as the people who seem to work there. I had one item in my cart, a 27x45 piece of plywood that I planned to put under a small ottoman that I own to give it support. She looked at it and then she asked me what it was. I immediately wanted to say something funny like "it's a lawnmower" but I thought if I said that I would have confused her even more so I just said it was a piece of wood and I left it at that. That didn't help at all because she then asked me what kind of wood I had. I said I don't know but I hoped it was from good stock. That answer didn't help either so I told her to call the guy over in lumber and he'll tell you that the wood that I have is really wood and I'll pay for it and go home. So she calls the lumber department and I can hear the guy on the phone laughing because he had to confirm that what I had was wood. That was the funniest $18.50 that I ever spent.

Edited May 24, 2015 by Yankee4Life

[Kccitystar]

...I've been going through a lot of personal stuff behind the scenes, losing my job and all, but I'm working on that. While I've been doing tech support for quite some time, I think I just have to pivot my career path a little. I love user interface design and making sure things look/feel right and are usable. I've also been looking to get into coding, preferably Python for Linux purposes. My end game is to become a Linux Systems Administrator, or possibly a python developer, but that's going to be a little tricky.

...I've also been contemplating a relocation. Yeah, I live in probably one of the most popular cities on the planet, but I'm not a good fit for this town. My significant other fortunately is on board with this and whatever goals I wish to achieve because I am extremely driven. I love that woman like sharks love blood.

...We had to shut the site down last weekend because of a lot of database stuff that needed to be cleaned up, particularly a nasty bug that was resolved in the middle of the week. The site was somewhat accessible, but it was my choice to keep it offline, because I felt that in order for everything on the frontend to look nice and function properly for the users, you need to have a fundamentally sound backend to support it all. I haven't had a good night's sleep in a while in helping Trues get this site's shit in order, but that's fine, I mean, in due time everything will be great as it once was. Speaking of, I'll touch on that:

...The site's software as part of the huge upgrade to 4.0 has been a nightmare. People can ask, well, why jump to 4.0? We were on 3.5, why can't we stick with what we had with all the fancy doodads and such? I'll be blunt and say that the site needed a fresh coat of paint and a cleaner look, as well as being functional across any device/platform. That, and a whole bunch of technical reasons dealing with the backend. I know that in time the site will look amazing again, and I'll be there to see it shine.

...I need a vacation. Badly.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 5-31

...An eighteen-year-old kid, whose age must have been bigger than his I.Q.  but probably not his shoe size was arrested after successfully evading police and then getting caught because he went back to the scene of the crime because he left his hat behind. What got him on the police's radar at first was when they caught him running a red light and when they went after him he pulled into a driveway and took off before they could catch up to him. It's not like the guy was being chased for holding up a liquor store or something like that but from the way he ran from the police you could have fooled them. While the police were still at the place where he ditched his car and took off he went back there to search for his hat and after giving a detailed description of the missing cap he was arrested for running the red light, avoiding arrest and leaving the scene of a crime and for aggravated stupidity. The good news is that he got his hat back. Now he just needs a head to put it on. 

...All the Oakland Athletics needed to do to start playing better baseball was wait for the New York Yankees to come to town.

...This "Dancing Man" guy just proves that anyone can be a viral star. You just have to be in the right place at the right time even if you are just like this poor guy who was doing nothing but minding his own business.

...A Sacramento man was sentenced to more than twenty-eight years behind bars for the near-fatal stabbing of a doorman outside a nightclub because he was angry about a bad drink and poor service that he got there earlier that evening. Maybe I'm not understanding his reason for doing this but why take it out on the doorman? How does that make any sense? That's like if you go to the movies and the film you saw wasn't as good as you hoped it would be and on the way out to your car you stop and beat the snot out of the ticket-taker. Same thing. Have fun in jail!

...Always get a second opinion, Dept: First responders who rushed to a Milwaukee high rise building who were preparing to take the body of a man pronounced dead to the morgue got the surprise of their careers when the guy suddenly began moving and breathing. When they arrived at his residence they found the man at the foot of his bed and he was cold, pale and rigid and knowing that not even a hot shower would have helped him in that state, they called the medical examiner and notified the man's family of his death. Just about the time that the body was being prepared to be shipped to the morgue is when he started to move around. That's understandable. The guy probably overheard where they were taking him and that alone got him moving. The moral of the story here would be (and I'm sorry, I can't resist) not to be caught dead in Milwaukee.

...ISIS may be doing a lot of terrible things around the world and it just seems that their madness and brutality is increasing as the months go on but I think that the most frightening thing they are doing is convincing people to willingly join their cause.  A woman in Sydney, Australia abandoned her two children with a babysitter earlier this month and never returned as she fled to Syria for a new life with ISIS. To me that is the side of these people that worries me the most.

...Before most people start boasting about their family tree, they usually do a good pruning job. Which explains what Ben Affleck is trying to do when he asked the producers from a TV program exploring his family tree to remove a relative that was found to have owned slaves back in the 1860's. Well Ben he wouldn't own any today, would he? Wether this guy was a slave owner or a moonshiner or a bank robber is irrelevant now. It's been over one hundred and fifty years and I don't think anyone has to answer for what someone in your family did or did not do over a century before you were born. People are so paranoid and politically correct these days that they are apologizing for crap that their family did back in the 1800's like they actually had something to do with it. Maybe he can look on the bright side of it and he can make a lousy movie about this. It certainly would not be his first.
...A teenage boy in Montana accidentally shot to death one of his two friends when they were outside his window in the middle of the night trying to wake him by knocking and throwing pebbles at his window. The kid woke up startled and when he saw two faces in the window he got scared so he then grabbed a gun that was in the bedroom and fired through the window. If this were an intruder he would have done his job well but the shot he fired hit his friend square in the head and he died shortly after taken to the hospital. Right now the local police do not know if they are going to file charges or not. I can't think of any reason why this kid shouldn't be prosecuted. What the hell is he doing with a loaded gun in his room in the first place? How the hell is he going to explain that? What the hell did he think was out there, a killer moose? And his friends could have tried calling him on his phone instead of resorting to the old-fashioned pebble throwing bit. What the hell, that's the stuff I used to do to get my friends to come out at night and that's how they got me out. It was a senseless accident but more than that it was stupid.

...You're hired! You're fired!, Dept: A twenty-seven-year- old single mother from Dallas got herself fired from her new job at a day care facility because she made a post on Facebook that she hated working at day cares and also hated being around a lot of kids. Doesn't sound like a good fit for her. It's like someone wanting to join the fire department but doesn't care to fight fires or ride in the truck. Her new boss didn't think that she would have been a good fit either so he called her at home and told her not to bother coming into work now or ever because of what she wrote on Facebook. She made sure the local news stations there heard about it and she told one of them that she "really needed" the job and didn't mean to offend anyone. Well, now she really needs to go look for another job. She's old enough to know not to post these kind of comments online because they always come back to hurt you. Then again maybe she doesn't. 

...An Apple watch? What the hell for?

...I had to laugh last week when a mother down in South Carolina had to keep her kids inside the house because a ten-foot alligator was walking across their front lawn. The kids thought it was a "cool thing to see" but of course they said that with the doors and windows locked behind them. If I had seen an alligator on my lawn the next thing that I would have on it after it left was a For Sale sign.

...It happened in Florida, Dept. (part 143): A man in South Florida is suing his hospital for emotional distress because after he had his leg amputated it was thrown in the garbage with his name tag still on it. What the hell did he expect the hospital to do, prop it up in the corner someplace? I would understand if he had emotional distress had the hospital amputated the wrong leg but that's not what happened here. I see a nice little settlement in the future for him and all his distress will suddenly disappear in the wind.

...I would have paid anything to see the look on the person's face when they were dumpster diving as they pulled out that leg.

...Like most people I have caller ID on my home phone and I use it to avoid sales calls and relatives, although not necessarily in that order. So you can imagine my surprise last Thursday afternoon when the phone rang and when I looked at the caller ID I was startled to learn that I was calling myself. There I was looking at my name and phone number while the phone was ringing and since I wanted to hear what I had to say I answered the phone and almost immediately regretted it. I was telling myself that I had just won a trip to the Caribbean and all I had to do was press 9 on my phone to talk to an operator but it never gave me the chance because I hung up on myself right after I finished my sales pitch. And what made it even worse was that I found out my voice sounds exactly like a woman.

...At Chicago's O’Hare International Airport last week a stewardess on a Spirit Airlines flight decided to pose for photos inside a jet engine while passengers were boarding the flight. One of the passengers saw what she did and instead of asking someone on the flight crew about what she did or have them ask the Captain about it, they decided the best thing they should do is call a local TV station so they could make a big deal about it and in turn they could get their fifteen minutes of fame. Whomever this person was made sure to tell the TV people that they were "concerned" about what they saw the flight attendant do but again it should be noted that they weren't that concerned to let the Captain know about it. The TV station came first. Some people are just not happy with their lives unless they are complaining about something. They never said who this person was that phoned in this story but I hope in the near future that someone turns them in for something just as meaningless. 

...Former 49ers and Bears defensive lineman Ray McDonald had a busy week last week as he managed to get himself arrested two times for a domestic violence incident and for violating a restraining order that was issued from his first arrest. The reason why he wasn't arrested for a third time was because he simply ran out of time.

...You could not blame the Angels at all for being a bit confused after they found out that Josh Hamilton hit his first two home runs of the season -both of which occurred in one game- on his return to the Texas Rangers last week. He was with them for two seasons and for all that time just mailed it in as he never came close to do anything as exciting at that at any time as a member of their team.

...The reason why it is so easy for me to root against the Washington Nationals is because they have overrated Stephen Strasburg and over-inflated Bryce Harper on their team.

...I can't help but recalling some guy paying $16,000 for a Strasburg baseball card a few years back. I bet he's been congratulating himself on that lately.

...Dustin Diamond, who played the highly-annoying Screech character on Saved by the Bell got himself arrested during a Christmas Day altercation last year when he was in a bar with his girlfriend. Somehow a fight started and Diamond pulled out his knife and in the confusion one patron was stabbed. When Diamond was asked to explain himself in front of the judge he explained that he only pulled out his knife because he figured it would "take the fight out of people." And I bet all this time you all thought he was just acting like an idiot on TV. Turns out he really was one.

...In many ways Miami Marlins owner Jeffery Loria reminds me of former Oakland Athletics owner Charlie Finley and if anyone who remembers when Finley owned the A's this is in no way a compliment. At least Finley's A's won despite of him.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 6-7

 

...Last week a Danish radio host killed a baby rabbit by hitting it with a bicycle pump while live on the air because he wanted to show the hypocrisy of animal lovers. Talk about being a real shock-jock. The guy's point was that the people that say they are concerned about animal welfare are the same people who are not concerned about how animals are killed for their dining room tables. You know something? Maybe the man has a point here but I think I would have found another way to say it without killing a bunny.

 

...A thirty-five foot deep and eighty-foot wide sinkhole opened up on a Missouri golf course last week and while thankfully no one was hurt it did not stop a whole bunch of golfers from getting mad just the same. That's because none of them couldn't agree where to play the ball if it landed in there because none of them wanted to go in there to try to hit it out.

 

...On Michael Kay's radio show last Monday they were talking about Robinson Cano and his apparent unhappiness in playing in Seattle and if any of what they were talking about is true then as lazy as Cano is it in no way compares to how dumb he is. He's upset because there is a lack of a Dominican population in Seattle and because Seattle is located in the upper northwest of the United States their chartered plane rides are longer than any other team in the league. Don't you think he would have known this before signing that contract? I mean what did Jay-Z do, bring in a couple of dozen Dominicans and let them loose in Seattle just to give Cano the impression that he wasn't alone there. And he spent nine years as a member of the Yankees. He should have known how long the flights were to get to and leave the city of Seattle. What did he think, the planes were faster for the home team? Can you imagine how good this guy would be if he had a brain?

 

...This is kind of hard to believe but when the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars play in London on October 25th the game is going to be globally streamed for free live on Yahoo. Maybe that's a little unfair because the NFL is not as cheap as major league baseball. They just get the worst headlines. Something like this would have been a good idea when baseball's opening series was played in Australia in March but if the fans are in line to get something free baseball will find a way to charge them for it.

 

...At least Josh Hamilton gave the Rangers one good week. He sat out last week for what the team is calling “tightness in his lower half.” That's what happens when you try to lift up four pitchers of beer at the same time.

 

...The family of the victim who was fatally shot by members of Boston's Joint Terrorism Task Force last week are upset because they opened fire on him. What else did they think would happen when the guy kept on coming at the police with the knife in his hand and wouldn't drop it even though he was told to over and over again? The Boston police aren't playing around. They're still upset at what those two Muslim brothers did to the Boston Marathon a couple of years ago and if anyone thought they were going to negotiate with another one of these animals has another think coming.

 

...Either they did not read the papers or they did not care but voters in Pittsburgh voted in a councilwoman who died earlier last month over her opponent who as of this writing is still currently alive. This woman was so good at her job that the voters thought she could do a better job six feet under than the other woman that ran against her. I just hope no one expects her to make a speech any time soon.

 

...Johnny Manziel was staying in a Dallas hotel last week for a golf tournament when an eighteen-year-old fan started harassing him. It was obvious that he was a Browns fan because no other fans in the NFL hate Manziel more than Cleveland fans and the only way they'll consider letting up on him is if the Browns manage to dump him off on someone dumber than they are and there is little chance of that happening since Buffalo seems set at quarterback right now. The guy wouldn't let up on his comments about him and Manziel finally heard enough and hurled a water bottle at him. At least he tried. Before he got the pass off he was tackled by one of the hotel's staff for a loss. No matter where he goes he can't get protection.

 

...A lawyer from Kenya has offered President Obama fifty cows, seventy sheep and thirty goats in exchange for his sixteen-year-old daughter Malia's hand in marriage. Really, what is this guy thinking? Where are you going to house all those animals at the White House? I hope this guy has a back-up plan because the only way he's going to get Malia in his house is if he downloads a picture of her from the internet.

 

...Now if this same guy was interested in Kendall or Kylie Jenner he could have had either one of them and saved all his livestock for himself. All he would have had to agree on was to let Kris Jenner film the wedding for their reality show and he would have been all set.

 

..BINGO in Florida for senior citizens is very important. It's really all they do. It's not like they can spend their time going to Rays or Marlins games because when you get to be that age you tend to nod off easily and you don't want to risk having a ball hit you. That's why Bingo parlors are jam-packed. One day last week an eighty-two-year-old man went to try his luck at winning some money and when he got to the Bingo hall he found that his favorite seat was already occupied by an eighty-eight-year-old woman and what's worse is that she had no plans on giving it up any time soon. The guy then stormed out of the place and proceeded to grab an ice pick where he then punctured all four tires of the woman's car. The younger senior citizen was arrested for criminal mischief and was later freed on a five hundred dollar bond. When the judge asked him why he did what he did the guy replied that he "didn't like pushy old people."

 

...I have no sympathy at all for the Muslim woman who was denied an unopened can of Diet Coke on a United Airlines flight. The woman complained that for hygienic reasons she wanted an unopened can but was told that she could not have one but later on saw a flight attendant hand an unopened can of beer to another passenger. When she saw that she asked why she wasn't allowed to have her opened can and she said she was told that unopened cans could be used as weapons on the plane. At least that's what she said she was told. Wether she was or not is irrelevant. I'll be more compassionate towards the feelings of Muslims once they stop slaughtering people around them.

 

...Appearances are deceiving, Dept: An animal control worker in Michigan was called to a home because of a report that a tiger was on the driveway of a vacant home. Sure enough, when he arrived there it was. So he grabbed a pole and a shield for himself and called the police for backup. Had he looked closer he would have found that he could have saved himself a call because the tiger, although very life-like, was only a stuffed animal. That meant when the police arrived they did not have to shoot it. He may be a little embarrassed at what happened but at the same time he should consider himself lucky because if a tiger wants to get at you a pole and a shield is only going to temporarily stop it.

 

When I first moved in my house back in 1996 the neighbors across the way from me had a ceramic black Labrador retriever on their porch for reasons known only to themselves. That damned thing looked life-like too and it had me fooled for awhile until I noticed after a period of time that it never moved once from where it was. Finally I asked our mailman about it and he told me that the dog statue has been there for as long as he was doing his route and that the people got it at a flea market. Well, some years went by and the same mailman took a few weeks off in the summer and we had a substitute carrier when he was gone. When he came back from his vacation he told me that the guy who did his route while he was gone did not deliver any mail to that house during his first week off because he thought the people had their dog loose on the porch.

 

...I bet that three hundred pound pitcher from Lewis-Clark State in Florida would not mind wearing those old wool uniforms while out on the mound because at least those make you look a little bit better then those double-knit polyester ones. But you know what? The guy's doing the job and is having fun playing ball. Can't fault him for that.

 

...Memo to the Boston Red Sox: Junior Lake of the Cubs hit a home run against the Marlins and as he was rounding third base he gestured to the Miami dugout and put his finger to his lips for them to be quiet. Never mind that the Cubs were still losing by four runs at the time, he still did it. Now that's the kind of player you want on your team. He'd fit right in with Hanley Ramirez and Mookie Betts.

 

...If you have not seen the picture of Bruce Jenner dressed as a woman on the July cover of Vanity Fair and calling himself Caitlyn Jenner you're going to have to do your own search for it because there's no way I am posting it here. The magazine is not even out yet but the media is already scouring posts and tweets for anything they think is controversial about it and Drake Bell is the first guy they set their sights on. Bell, after looking at Jenner's picture tweeted "Sorry, still calling you Bruce." No more, no less. That was it. But it was enough for the PC police to label what he wrote as "transphobic" and while I am not sure exactly what that means it was enough for Bell to quickly delete what he wrote. I don't blame him. You get those people after you and they don't let up. That is why I don't believe for one minute all the people that say they support him in what he's doing. You got to wonder how many have said it just to have the media leave them alone. Gone are the days of free and honest opinions. And it happened right in front of our eyes.

 

...By the way I am still calling the SOB Bruce too.

 

...I had a free trial of Hulu last month so I was watching some shows that I haven't seen in years. Some of you may remember a show called Good Times and some of you may not. It was only on about five years and towards the end of the show's run a young Janet Jackson was one of the regulars on it. Anyways, there's a point to this. After watching a couple of episodes I began to notice that the late Esther Rolle, who played the mother on the show, looked like David Ortiz. Proof? Here you go.

Oh hell yeah.

[RaptorQuiz]

Here's a random thought for a Sunday...

...MVPmods.com is still alive and kicking!

I've gotten married, got a new job, got a new house, and had a kid - that is now 2 years old...

...all since the last time I logged in to this site.

Hello everyone. It does my heart good to see this place still going.  I was admin... oh, say, 5 or 8 years ago.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 6-14

...I was someone who had no problem with the year-long suspension that was given to Alex Rodriguez. He stayed away all of last year and did his time and ever since the first day of spring training back in February he has been nothing but a baseball player focused on doing his job. Many members of the media aren't too happy about this because it makes their job harder when he is not providing them with anything noteworthy to write about and from what I have seen they have tried. As easy it was for people to cheer on Derek Jeter that is how easy it is to boo Alex Rodriguez. Not everything that Jeter did in his career was worthy of a standing ovation just like everything Rodriguez has done should be booed and hated on. The Yankees so far have not paid him for his 660th home run. He just broke an RBI record the other week and before this month is out he will have his 3,000th hit.  These are milestones he deserves to celebrate. No, he's not Derek Jeter. He's Alex Rodriguez. Jeter was so bad in his final season that if A-Rod didn't play another game for the rest of this year he would have already had a better year than Captain twenty million did last year. 

...Great, Andrew Miller is gone for a month just when we got Tanaka back. You just can't keep pitchers healthy.

...Even though the Tigers sent Shane Greene (4-6 with a 5.82 ERA in 13 games) to Triple A Toledo last week I still regret the Yankees trading him last year.

...I wonder how the Cubs fans feel about Jon Lester now after they dished out all that money for his 4 - 5 record and 4.25 ERA? 

...Yesterday afternoon I went to see Jurassic World in 3D. If you have any intentions on seeing that movie I suggest you see it in 3D because nothing else would do it justice. You can keep on reading this because I am not going to bring up any points that will spoil the movie for you in any way. But there is one thing I have to bring up and I promise it won't spoil it for you that just had me wondering. There's this redhead in it by the name of Bryce Dallas Howard (never heard of her) and she has some kind of executive position at the park. At one point she is out there running from the dinosaurs and she is doing it in high heels. Adrenalin must have took over because she was flying. The movie is about two and one half hours long. There were two things that I thought of when I was leaving the Sony Theater yesterday. First, when this movie is released on blu-ray I am getting a copy and if there was ever a real Jurassic Park out there I would never go there.

...A strip club in Las Vegas is trying something new to attract new dancers and strippers to their business by sending out advertisements to encourage recent 2015 high school graduates to apply for a job there, saying that stripping will help them earn money for college. The owner of the club states that a girl can make up to one thousand dollars a night. That alone will probably get some girls to work there even though I doubt when it is time for them to apply to a college it won't look so good on their application letter that they worked there.

...I'd like to be a fly on the wall just to see the father's reaction when his daughter comes home right after her graduation and says to him "Daddy, I got a job."

...My first reaction to finding out that Tiger Woods shot a career-worst 13-over 85 at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio was that he's done. Injuries, personal problems and the inability to hold on to hot-looking blondes have finally took a toll on him.

...The CEO of Dunkin' Donuts said last week that the company is developing a mobile ordering platform to deliver coffee and donut orders to customer's homes and offices. They are doing this because in the northwest where Starbucks is king, they are testing a delivery service via a smart phone app. If Dunkin' Donuts ever ends up doing this any chance of C.C. Sabathia finishing his career with the Yankees and fitting into his uniform are slim and none.

...What am I laughing at? If Krispy Kreme ever did this I would be tempted. When we had a Krispy Kreme in my city I went there once and I couldn't get out of there fast enough. They were giving away free glazed donuts and those little things were the best I ever had in my entire life. Krispy Kreme was only here for a couple years but I never once went back. They were just too damn good.

...The Brooklyn Museum is gave Miss Piggy (yeah, the Muppet) a feminist award for her many "contributions to society" last Thursday. Really? What the hell did she ever do except chase a little green frog all over the place? Makes me wonder what real feminists think of this. This must be driving someone like Rosie O'Donnell nuts. She lives for stuff like this.

..This past week I started watching a TV series called Bomb Girls that aired for two seasons in 2012 and 2013. It's a show about women working in a bomb factory during the start of World War II. I like movies and shows based around this time but I never heard of this one because it aired on Canadian television. This show is available to view online but only for Canadian viewers. Meg Tilly is the star of the show and there's a looker named Jodi Balfour that will make you want to tune into each episode as quickly as you finish the previous one.

...Calling themselves a "socialist fairyland" North Korea is actively trying to get people from all over the world to come and visit their country to show everyone that they aren't as bad as all those people that they hold captive say they are. The way I see it getting into the country won't be that hard. All you need is a passport, the money and no common sense. Getting out of there could be harder. God forbid you jay-walk or commit other crimes against the state when you're there.

...Proving that Americans are not the only people who file idiotic lawsuits, a man in China is suing actress Zhao Wei for staring at him too intensely through his television set and therefore causing as he put it, "spiritual damage." This lawsuit is so stupid that it makes the one where the lady sued McDonalds for giving her hot coffee look smart. But I am going to pay attention to this anyway because if this guy wins I immediately plan on suing Kate Upton because each time I look at her chest my eyes bug out.

...I have always liked Jerry Seinfeld and that includes his stand-up act and his TV show. I like him because he is a genuinely funny guy and he doesn't take himself too seriously. My respect for him went way up last week after I listened to him explain in a radio interview why he does not want to do any of his shows at colleges anymore. He said that they were too politically correct and are too quick to find certain topics offensive. And he's right. Most college kids today are a bunch of self-involved hyper-sensitive whiners that can get offended over everything. Not everything that is said has offensive or racial overtones in it. Sometimes it's just humor as it is meant to be. That's why I don't blame him for what he said. I'm sure he'd rather do a show in front of people who aren't so full of themselves.

...It takes nerve these days just to express your opinion when you know it will not be received well by the outspoken minority of people who overturn rocks looking to be offended. ESPN announced that Bruce/Caitlyn/Whatever Jenner will receive the 2015 Arthur Ashe Courage Award at the ESPYS next month. Bob Costas, who has no problem calling things as he sees them, said that ESPN is only giving Jenner that award as a "tabloid move" that was only meant to generate ratings for them and that if ESPN really wanted to they could have found someone who was much closer and actively involved in sports that would have been deserving of what that award represents. Which does make sense if you think about it because Jenner won his Olympic awards back in 1976 and has been cashing in on them ever since. I commend Costas for having the guts to say what most people would be afraid to say. 

...Well, I never thought I would see this happen and in a way I was lucky to come across it. A young black woman (age twenty-two) was fired from her job at a zoo in Chicago after she complained on Facebook of serving "rude ass white people" who would call her names, throw items at her and steal food from her cart and that it wasn't worth the $8.55 an hour to put up with treatment like that. When the zoo found out what she did they immediately fired her because people were threatening never to come back as long as she was there. The zoo even told those customers who called in about her post that they were welcome to go to other vendors and steal from them but they still wanted this girl gone. Like I said I was lucky to come across this because CNN didn't cover this and this is the kind of crap that they are all over. Racism! Injustice! Facebook! The only thing this story needed was a Kardashian in it and it would have been national news. I have no compassion for this girl because if she thinks she is supposed to be treated differently than anyone else who work with the general public then she's crazy. If she is going to have jobs like the one she had for the rest of her life then she is going to have to realize that you are going to come across people who are miserable because they enjoy being that way and there is nothing you can do to make them happy. But when you are like her, under twenty-five, you feel entitled and these kind of things should not happen to you. Well, they're not now. You're out of a job. Enjoy your 100% pay cut.

...If there is any indication of why soccer is and always will be considered a second-class sport in this country just look at Hope Solo, the star goalkeeper for the women's team. She has enough domestic violence abuse charges against her to make any NFL player proud and yet with the exception of one United States Senator who questioned why she was still allowed out on the field this weekend against Sweden, no one is saying a word about it. The woman's got a right hook and a hot temper equal to Ray Rice but unlike Rice no one has gone on TV calling for her head. Adrian Peterson has to be wondering what the hell's going on here too. And the reason is more people here in the U.S. care about football than soccer. If the NFL didn't do anything to those guys they'd lose sponsors and there was already a lot of racket about how they handled it when it first happened. With Solo? An article here and there and that was it. It was only soccer after all. 

...Last Tuesday a bounty hunter accidentally (I think) shot and killed country singer Randy Howard at his Tennessee home when he was trying to bring him in on a warrant charging him with fourth-offense DUI, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of a firearm while intoxicated and driving on a revoked license. With all that going on I'm surprised Howard found time to sing. The reason why I said I wasn't sure it was an accident because it happened in Tennessee. If a bounty hunter wouldn't have done this it would have been someone else.

[BigRog]

Bryce is Ron Howards Daughter... she has been in a whole bunch of movies including apollo 13 when she was litte which you have probably seen


and with the hope solo arrest, i could of sworn it was self defense against her nephew who is 6'9 and the judge threw it out because of lack of cooperation from the two victims in the case (which makes me question if they where actual telling the truth and backs up the self defense story)

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 6-21

...The first thing I thought of when I heard that the FBI was investigating the St. Louis Cardinals for hacking into the Houston Astros database was thank God it wasn't the Yankees. The second thing was that I hope they come down hard on them.

...No, not once did I think the Red Sox would stoop low enough to do something like this to another major league team. They'd make sure to hire someone else to do their work for them.

...Does Nathan Eovaldi bring back memories of A.J. Burnett or what?

...Maybe the San Diego Padres did not get off to the start that they hoped to have especially with all the good, young players they added over the winter but to fire Bud Black was an act out of desperation and frustration instead of out of necessity. They're only a few games under .500 and are not that far off from the first position in the N.L. West. It was a panic move and it should have been avoided. The team that they have is too good to continue playing like this.

...The fans of the Kansas City Royals have turned the voting for the All-Star Game next month into more of a joke than it already is.  Since there is nothing else to do there besides milk cows, their fans have been nominating every Royals player that is on the ballot this year wether they deserve it or not. You can vote up to thirty-five times with each e-mail address you provide so it's easy to see how they're getting away with it. All you need to do is sign up on those temporary and anonymous disposable e-mail services like Mailinator over and over again and your thirty-five votes can be made over and over again. And even though baseball has canceled sixty million of those votes they still have a lot of time to make those votes count again. If all of these Royals players ends up in the starting lineup next month it will be an embarrassment for anyone that considers themselves baseball fans.

...Alex Rodriguez continues to impress and is making all the people who call themselves experts that said he wouldn't do anything productive this year after his year-long exile last season. I'm glad he has and even though the Yankees won't go as crazy about it like they did for Derek Jeter I was happy to see him get his 3,000th hit on Friday off of the always-tough Justin Verlander. It just makes you wonder what could have been had Rodriguez had done things differently in the past. Rodriguez' milestone hit was a home run that was hit into the right field bleachers and the guy that caught it must be some human ball magnet because he has caught more than eight thousand baseballs. That's amazing. How the hell do you do that? And the guy has never sold any of them or given them away. Must be one prince of a guy. Naturally he's hanging on to this ball too. Who would expect anything else?

...Today is the first day of Summer and even though I am not in school anymore I still celebrate it. I love this season partially because I was born in it and secondly it the complete opposite of winter. There's not a lot of kids in my area and the ones that are here keep to themselves. I'm not one of those "get off my lawn" guys because it really wasn't that long ago that I was one of those kids playing touch football out there and we were using the front lawns of the neighbors to run on. The only thing I can hope for these kids is to enjoy their time off because the time flies and before you know it your summers are not yours anymore.    

...Twenty-one-years-old and you get it into your head that it is a good idea to murder nine people who were minding their own business in church all because they were black? Enjoy the rest of your life. It will probably be a short one.

...Pablo Sandoval was benched last Thursday by the Red Sox and later given a warning by Major League Baseball because while going to the bathroom while a Red Sox game was going on he went on Instagram and liked two pictures of a woman that showed up on his account. Baseball has a rule that prohibits players from using social media during games. That really shouldn't be too hard to follow for any of them because while the game is going on they should be focused on that but this idiot would rather comment on how hot he thinks someone is than thinking about the game. Must be nice when you are guaranteed ninety-five million dollars. Red Sox fans will find a way to excuse this though. They don't like when one of their own does something stupid. They'd prefer to just look the other way. I just wonder how much weight does a warning letter from the league carry? I mean if he really wanted to couldn't he just apply a phony name to a new Instagram account? Then he can run down to the clubhouse a couple times a game.

...There's a lot of things that go on these days that I will never understand. That Jenner thing for one. Now there's some woman named Rachel Dolezal who up until most recently was the head of the Spokane chapter of the NAACP. She's not anymore because she resigned her position because of one little problem that the media found out about. She's not black. If you take a look at her picture she certainly looks the part but a picture that has popped up of her as a teenager show her to be whiter than, well, Snow White. Today she looks like she spent some quality time in a tanning booth and she has enough curls in her hair to make even Oprah proud. It's one thing that Bruce Jenner now has to learn to apply make-up from now on and to use a tampon properly but he never said he was going to transform into a black woman.

...No taxation without pornification, Dept: The owner of an Austrian brothel has come up with a very interesting way to protest the amount of taxes he has to pay to run his businesses, which are in Germany and Austria. For the entire summer he is offering free sex at his establishments along with free admission and free drinks. So if you ever wanted to see Europe, now's the time.

..Milwaukee Brewers radio announcer Bob Uecker hit in the head with a foul ball during batting practice last Monday and had to be hospitalized. It was only a mild concussion but since he is eighty-one they just wanted to observe him as a precaution. Uecker is one of baseball's true funny men and I wish him nothing but the best. 

...John Stamos is the latest celebrity that has been arrested and cited for driving under the influence last week. Fortunately his drive behind the wheel that night did not cause any harm to himself or to anyone else. He was transported to the hospital by police and issued a citation before being released into the custody of the hospital. The next day Stamos apologized for his actions and explained that the reason why he had too much to drink was because he was celebrating not having to work with the Olsen sisters again during the filming of the new season of Full House.

...I was at 7-11 the other day looking for something to drink and I saw that they were selling Mexican Pepsi in twelve-ounce glass bottles there. I didn't know what the difference was from the Pepsi we have here and what they have in Mexico so I bought a bottle. It looked identical and tasted the same too so I still don't know what the big fuss was about except that it said it was a product of Mexico. When it was finished I still couldn't speak a word of Spanish.

...Fly the friendly skies Dept: A disabled eighty-four-year-old woman boarded the wrong flight last week and ended up in Malta instead of Athens, which was five hundred and fifty miles away from where she was supposed to be. Her son had arranged special assistance for her to board the plane but when she saw people line up to board the plane she decided to get up and get in line with them. That's how she was able to board the plane with everyone else. Her first indication of something being wrong when she landed besides no one being there to greet her was not being able to read the signs in the airport since they were in another language. The airline put her up for the night and she was in Athens the next day, this time to be greeted by her family who will probably never let her go to the store by herself ever again. The airline also said that they were planning to take what they call "corrective measures" to insure this would never happen again. What for? How about the next time just read her boarding pass? Then they would have seen she was on the wrong plane.

...Last week a woman in New Mexico awoke to noises in her kitchen, which for her were very strange since she lives alone. When she went downstairs to find out what it was she found a man there cleaning her countertop and baking a potato in her microwave. When she asked him what he was doing there he told her he was baking a potato. Well, he had to do something. The steaks were still thawing. Then the guy went outside while the potato was still cooking and began raking the woman's leaves in her front yard. While the guy was out there raking the leaves the woman told him that she wanted to pay him for the yard work but she only said that just so the guy would stay around because the police were on their way. When the police arrived she wouldn't let them in until the guy was finished with the lawn. May as well since he started it. The guy was arrested on burglary and unlawful entry charges and was hauled away without being able to eat his potato. How do you like that? This guy cooks for her and works around the house without being told to and she still isn't satisfied.

...A man from Pennsylvania who was intent on pleading his case to the police when he was supposed to show up to be fingerprinted for a drunk driving charge found himself slapped with another one when he showed up drunk for his appointment. This time he ended up behind bars because the police discovered he drove himself to the police station in that condition. Any chance of explaining to the judge why he was under the influence the first time he was caught probably won't hold weight anymore. If you ever need a definition of stupid there you go.

...A guy in Oklahoma was leaving his work last week and was walking to his car playing with his cell phone and like most people who do that was not paying any attention to his surroundings. That's when he stepped on and was subsequently bit by a four-foot long bull snake. Luckily for him those type of snakes are non-venomous. After the shock wore off the guy got mad. With all the apps made for these phones there wasn't one to help him out in a situation like this? That's right pal. It was the snakes fault you stepped on him. Go back to your texting.

...Who says you can't buy your friends, Dept: A thirteen-year-old future felon from Ohio was arrested and charged with delinquency by way of theft from the elderly when he stole $25,000 from his grandfather and then handing out one hundred dollar bills to his classmates last month. The kid gave away thousands of dollars before the school got wind of what he was doing. If he had any brains in his head he would have given the girls more. Some of the money was recovered but a lot of it is gone. If there was any sort of college fund for this kid the grandfather should be reimbursed from that because this kid's future is in wearing orange jumpsuits. 

...Finally, Happy Father's Day to all of you members in here who are fathers and to all the Dads in your families too. I hope you all have a nice, quiet and relaxing day.

[raidersbball20]

.I was at 7-11 the other day looking for something to drink and I saw that they were selling Mexican Pepsi in twelve-ounce glass bottles there. I didn't know what the difference was from the Pepsi we have here and what they have in Mexico so I bought a bottle. It looked identical and tasted the same too so I still don't know what the big fuss was about except that it said it was a product of Mexico. When it was finished I still couldn't speak a word of Spanish.

 

Some people like imported soda because it uses the original recipe. In Mexico they use sugar. In the states we use corn syrup now to sweeten the soda.  I love imported coca-cola. You can buy cases of the glass bottles at Sams Club.

[Gordo]

One major event not mentioned is that the U.S. Open (golf) has been going on this weekend at Chambers Bay (Washington State) on a course that looks as if it was concocted in Hell!  The amazing story of the tourney, though, is that Jason Day, an Australian champion, fell over during the second round due to a long term battle he's been having with vertigo.  Long story short...... he is tied for the lead with 3 other golfers going into today's last round.  The leaders start teeing off at around 5:30 eastern time today.  Should be good drama.

[sabugo]

 

...Fly the friendly skies Dept: A disabled eighty-four-year-old woman boarded the wrong flight last week and ended up in Malta instead of Athens, which was five hundred and fifty miles away from where she was supposed to be. Her son had arranged special assistance for her to board the plane but when she saw people line up to board the plane she decided to get up and get in line with them. That's how she was able to board the plane with everyone else. Her first indication of something being wrong when she landed besides no one being there to greet her was not being able to read the signs in the airport since they were in another language. The airline put her up for the night and she was in Athens the next day, this time to be greeted by her family who will probably never let her go to the store by herself ever again. The airline also said that they were planning to take what they call "corrective measures" to insure this would never happen again. What for? How about the next time just read her boarding pass? Then they would have seen she was on the wrong plane.

...Last week a woman in New Mexico awoke to noises in her kitchen, which for her were very strange since she lives alone. When she went downstairs to find out what it was she found a man there cleaning her countertop and baking a potato in her microwave. When she asked him what he was doing there he told her he was baking a potato. Well, he had to do something. The steaks were still thawing. Then the guy went outside while the potato was still cooking and began raking the woman's leaves in her front yard. While the guy was out there raking the leaves the woman told him that she wanted to pay him for the yard work but she only said that just so the guy would stay around because the police were on their way. When the police arrived she wouldn't let them in until the guy was finished with the lawn. May as well since he started it. The guy was arrested on burglary and unlawful entry charges and was hauled away without being able to eat his potato. How do you like that? This guy cooks for her and works around the house without being told to and she still isn't satisfied.

OK, these two got my attention.

First, in 2000 I went through 3 continents without having my passport signed. I should remind you that at the time I was a minor. I thought that with 9/11 all this would change but no. I've got some friends who work for airlines and in airports, and they say these kinds of mistakes and errors still happen.
So, bottled water on a plane, that's a major violation. Invalid passports and people flying to the wrong destination, no problem!

On the second one, it just occurs to me: 'Women always find a way to complain...'
 

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 6-28

...It's funny, every time the subject of Pete Rose comes up the first thing you hear from the people who support him is his baseball statistics. They never talk about what got him banned. It took Rose awhile but he finally admitted he bet on baseball and that's the one thing that baseball does not mess around with. So, back in 1989 he was given his lifetime ban and he has been trying to get back in the game for the past twenty-six years now because apparently he does not know the meaning of "lifetime." That doesn't matter for his fans. They'll continue to tell you how many batting titles he's won, that he is the all-time hits leader and that he did this and he did that. They're blinded by the numbers he put up and somehow that excuses what he did off the field. Rose somehow managed to worm his way into participating in the All-Star Game activities next month because it's going to be held in Cincinnati. He's going to get a huge hand when he pops out of the dugout because those fans don't know any better and they never will. Since his banning Rose has been caught in one lie after the other and recently as two months ago he was continuing to deny that he bet on baseball games when he was still a player. This is the latest tall tale to blow up in his face because last Tuesday a notebook containing Rose's bets while he was still playing for the Reds back in 1986 was shown on Outside the Lines and after watching that you can't help but wonder if this will finally close the book on him in his attempt to get back in baseball. One can only hope. 

 

...I was reading a nice article in the New York Post last week from a Yankee beat writer who said that if C.C. Sabathia continues to struggle like he has been he needs to be taken out of the rotation and to try to figure out his problems in the bullpen. You can't argue with that unless you are Joe Girardi, who will continue to throw him out there every fifth day and then look astonished when he has to walk out there in the fourth inning to take him out of another game after he's given up seven runs. I really think that if Sabathia continued to be productive since he was a Yankee the Yankees would have taken a chance and signed either Jon Lester or Max Scherzer last year to those long contracts. But after seeing what a bust Sabathia has been they were reluctant to go out and do it again.

 

...Zack Hample is the guy that caught Alex Rodriguez' 3,000th hit last week and as soon as he caught it he said that there was no way he was giving it up but now he is beginning to have a change of heart. That is, provided that the Yankees meet his list of demands or as he calls them "wishes." First he wants the Yanks to make a sizeable donation to the Zack Hample fund, a foundation that he formed some years ago. Hample told the Yankees that every cent would go towards the charity. I believe that. Next, he made a demand list - I mean wish list- for himself. He assures people that he doesn't want to go overboard with it. Lifetime passes to Yankee games, valet parking, free food and an all-expense paid trip around the world is all he wants. Then he'll hand over the ball. I know what Alex Rodriguez is thinking right now: I should have hit a single.

 

...With the popularity of Jurassic World since its release on June 12th some people have been contemplating the likeliness of this happening in real life and some scientists are saying that in can be a possibility within ten years. They say that chickens and all types of birds carry bigger chunks of dinosaur DNA that will ever be found in a fossil. So, with some trial and error they believe a dinosaur, albeit a small one, can be created. I've heard this before back when the first Jurassic movie came out and that was back in 1993 and they haven't made any progress in twenty-two years. I kind of hope they don't. We have no right to play God.

 

...Ever since that maniac decided to shoot up that church in South Carolina people have been trying to come up with answers to why someone that young (21) would do such a thing. The sad truth is that we are never going to know what made him convince himself that this was a good idea and also get away with it. Because people don't know they are pointing fingers at the state of South Carolina because to this day they continue to fly the Confederate Flag at the state capitol. If that's the best they got they better keep looking because that flag didn't kill anyone. The Confederacy died generations ago and the men who fought for it have been dead and gone all this time. If that flag was there or not it wouldn't have changed anything. That kid still would have murdered those nine people. A flag didn't do this but a sick mind did.

 

...For the first time ever many of the family members from the survivors of the Boston Marathon heard the voice of  Dzhokhar Tsarnaev last Wednesday when he apologized for the pain and suffering he caused his victims before a judge in Boston formally imposed his death sentence. And that is that. The final period has been put in place on this twenty-one-year-old's life. Granted, it won't officially be done until the day that is chosen for him to die, but barring a dramatic escape, he's done. And even if he does manage to do that where's he going? This news was inevitable. There's nothing to celebrate about. It never is when someone so young is sentenced to die. And that kid in South Carolina will find that out before long.

 

...Movies, like most things that you come across in life are best decided to be either good or bad after you saw them for yourself instead of just accepting someone else's word about it. For years now I have always managed to miss watching a movie on TV called One Million Years. B.C. Either I didn't know it was on TV or I was too busy to watch it. The point is I never saw it and all I heard about it was that it was a great movie and that it didn't hurt it all that Raquel Welch was in it wearing a loin cloth bikini. So, when it came on AMC last week I have to admit that is the reason why I forced myself to watch it. Thirty minutes into the movie I realized that my definition of this being called a great movie was completely different from everyone else's. If there wasn't a narrator doing voice-overs every so often no one was speaking a word of English except for ooog-ooog-ugh. At least they knew what that meant. They didn't even say ooog-ooog-wow when Raquel Welch appeared in her first scene. They may have been cave men but they were men. I couldn't even watch this for an hour. At least now when the next time this comes on TV I will have another reason not to watch it.

 

...Jackie Robinson West Little League of Chicago, the team that won the 2014 United States championship only to have their title stripped away by Little League officials after they discovered that they were using ineligible players from outside of their designated residential boundaries are now suing them for their title back because they are questioning the fairness of the decision. According to their lawsuit they are not denying that they had ineligible players on their roster, which by the way is the reason why they lost their title in the first place! They are just questioning the ways and means of how the Little League governing body found out about their ruse and why it took them so long to make a decision. The problem is that these guys cheated, got caught and got punished for what they did. All they are doing here is filing a lawsuit with the hope that that small, insignificant fact gets ignored by a jury. Fat chance.

 

...Last month Bristol Palin abruptly called off her wedding and no reason was given as to why except that it was a mutual decision. Based on the bombshell that she dropped last Thursday it is now clear why she didn't end up walking down the aisle that day. She revealed that she is pregnant with her second child and based on what she was saying this bit of news was as much of a surprise for her as it was for Custer at Little Bighorn. While she was open to the public about her pregnancy she did not go as far as revealing who the father of her unborn child was and that was probably because she did not know the guy's name herself. Palin, the same girl who has gone around the country preaching about abstinence, abstained from it just when she needed it the most. But before she did that she made quite a profit telling other girls how to live their lives. All she really had to do was tell them "don't do what I do" and that would have been that. She also went on to say that she did not want any lectures about what she did and that she did not want any sympathy. I can practically guarantee that no one is going to give her any sympathy and as far as a lecture goes I'm sure Mother Palin is going to be giving her a good one because what she did here killed what remained of her political career because from now on that family is going to be looked at as a bunch of hypocrites.

 

...Carlos Beltran should be arrested on the grounds of impersonating an outfielder.

 

...The Phillies lost a good manager in Ryne Sandberg on Friday when Sandberg informed the team that he was stepping down from his position. Along with some upcoming front office changes coming for the Phils, Sandberg felt that he did not want to be in the way with anything happening with that. Also, the constant losing took a toll on him and it was beginning to get to him. The first part of his reasons for resigning I can understand but not so much the second part. I mean he played in Chicago for years. You would think he'd be used to losing by now.

 

...For years now I have gone on and on about how much I hate David Ortiz and everything that has to do with him. It goes beyond what team he plays for although there is no doubt that's where it started from. Besides the uniform that he wears what bothers me even more is his attitude on the field. He acts like he is bigger than the game and doesn't seem to think twice about showing up the opposing team. Take last week for example in a game against the Orioles. The Red Sox have been struggling all season and have been having an especially hard time against Baltimore, where they lost six straight games to them. The Red Sox finally broke that streak last Wednesday night with a 5 - 1 victory and Ortiz chipped in with a two-run home run. But as you can see from the picture that I attached here this is what he did when he crossed home plate. Really? What for? It doesn't matter if the Red Sox are ten games over .500 or under. It's always going to be about him. Not too many years ago you usually heard resentment for this guy coming out of me and just a few others here and there. Now if you pay attention a lot of American League pitchers are getting tired of this *^#%@. I'm still waiting for this guy to get what's coming to him.

 

           

...The Treasury Department made news last week when they announced that they will replace the main image of its own founder, Alexander Hamilton, on the $10 bill with a woman. Hamilton's face will still be on the bill but he won't be the main feature anymore. The Treasury folks won't say who is going to be on the new currency and are not going to release the name until later this year. The new ten dollar bill will first be in use in 2020 because that is the 100th anniversary of the nineteenth amendment that gave women the right to vote. Suggestions have already been made by women as to who they would like on the new bill. Eleanor Roosevelt's name came up as well as Harriet Tubman's. But there's another one and her name is Gertrude Adams and she could be a darkhorse in this thing. Gertrude Adams may not have had a great political career like Mrs. Roosevelt. In fact she wasn't involved in politics. But just the same a lot of women are calling for her to have this honor. You see, Gertrude Adams was the first woman who ran a buy one, get one free shoe sale promotion in New York City in 1948. When a woman gets free shoes you get her undying loyalty.

 

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 7-5

 

...I hope this holiday weekend has been an enjoyable one for everyone here and your families. Nothing like a hot dog on the grill and a ball game to go along with it. I'm not someone who stays for the fireworks because when you seen one you seen them all. Besides, I had to be home at the time they were going off so the dogs wouldn't go ballistic.

 

...Backing the truck up as quickly as she can Bristol Palin is now telling everyone to forget what she said last week about her pregnancy being unplanned. Now it was planned all along and will the real father please step forward to claim his door prize please? Twenty-four hour supermarkets are not as open as much as her legs are. If abstinence to her was to marry one guy and get pregnant by another then she failed miserably because the guy she thought she had all set up and trapped got out at the nick of time. There has to be something the matter with her because she is pleading for privacy from everyone in this matter but she continues to issue press releases. If it works for her mother it may as well work for her. What a record she's got. Engaged twice, called off twice and knocked up twice. Hell of a batting average.

 

...Under the Dome is back on now for the summer and the other week it had a two-hour season premier. This is a show you have had to watch from the beginning and that's what I have done. But even doing that I still had a hard time following that episode. There's been some sort of alternate reality thing going on but it is hard to tell which is real and what isn't. And if you haven't watched this show forget trying to understand what I just said. I'm lucky I can.

 

...My hat is off to that retired minister in Ohio that took his 12,000th ride on his favorite roller coaster at a place called King's Island amusement park near Cincinnati. This guy must have been busy because he took his first ride on the thing back in 2009 when the roller coaster opened up at that park. How he kept an accurate count of how many times he's done it is beyond me but I won't question it. For me it would be easy because all I'd have to do is count how many times I threw up.

 

...Goodbye Joba Chamberlain. Tigers fans found out this year what Yankee fans already knew. In his last seven games that he appeared in he had a 14.40 ERA and allowed opponents to post a .444 batting average with four homers in five innings. And Yankee fans complained about what he did during his time in New York.

 

...I don't like to see players go on the disabled list especially when they play for the Yankees but I'll make an exception for Carlos Beltran, who went on fifteen-day disabled list with a left side oblique strain. Anything that keeps this guy out of the lineup is fine by me.

 

...Die with your boots on, Dept: A Texas man who ignored posted warning signs and verbal pleas to not go swimming in an area where there were alligators is now dead because of it. For some reason he must have thought that the alligators were just going to ignore him when he got in because he yelled out '%^&^ the alligators'  right after one of the marina employees tried to warn him. It only took a few seconds for him to find out that he was wrong and that there was nothing that anyone could do except call the funeral parlor because they were getting another customer. I'm thinking there has to be a little more to the story as to why he thought it was okay to jump in the water to begin with.

 

...Last Sunday a thirty-two-year-old man was gunned down  after leaving a baby shower in Queens, New York that he was attending. The first thing that came to mind after reading about this was that someone must not have liked the gift that he brought.

 

...Goodbye Rite-Aid, I hardly knew you, Dept: I went to Rite-Aid last Friday afternoon and when I was getting ready to pay the cashier asked me if I had one of their Wellness cards. I remembered that I did and I handed it over. "Oh", she said, "you have an old one. Let me get you set up with a new one." Now all I wanted to do was pay for my God damned shampoo and get the hell out of there but I told her to go ahead. I had to give her my name and e-mail even though she was looking at the information right in front of her on her computer screen. A couple of taps on the keyboard and she was all set and then I was asked to verify the information. Somehow she managed to misspell my name wrong even though she didn't have to do anything to it to begin with. When I asked her to fix it she told me she couldn't because she already entered it into the computer. How the heck do you misspell something when it is right in front of you? I don't go into Rite-Aid a lot, maybe a few times a year but this was too much. I told her I wasn't going to start getting e-mails from them when they don't have my name right. I had the feeling that they had the ability to go in to their system to edit the information but this girl didn't know how to do it so I let the matter drop and I left. I don't need a Wellness card anyway and when I got home I cut up my new card and threw it away.

 

..Stunning News, Dept: The mayor of Glendale, Arizona agreed to let himself be tased by a fan of the Arizona Coyotes at a event that raised ten thousand dollars for charity. The mayor and other council members voted last Wednesday to end their fifteen-year agreement to host the team in Glendale and that is what got this whole chain of events rolling. This team was dead last in their division this year (24-50-8) so it was somewhat surprising that fans were found that actually cared about this team. It got me to thinking though. They raised ten grand for charity just to zap their mayor. How many millions do you think Cleveland could have raised so one of their fans could have done the same thing to Art Modell? 

 

...Have you ever heard of a woman named Rue McClanahan? If you have you are one up on a lot of the idiots you come across on the internet. She was an actress who was in Maude and The Golden Girls to name just two of things she did. If you google her and see her picture you will recognize her immediately. Well, she died back in 2010 and some people on the internet are just finding out about this now five years after it happened. This is what happens when the people whose lives are centered on internet gossip become bored and then they discover something that normal people already knew and all because it was a slow news days on the Jenner/Kardashian front.

 

...A female major leaguer? They've ruined the game so much by the addition of instant replay, interleague play and Cuban ballplayers who escape their homeland in the middle of the night (thank you Yasiel Puig) so what's one more change? Well ok, I'm getting ahead of myself here. Melissa Mayeux is a sixteen-year-old French girl who plays shortstop well enough to be the first female international player eligible to be signed by Major League Baseball. Right now she plays for the French junior national team so it's kind of hard to determine the level of competition she's been facing. Then again this could just be a publicity stunt. If by any chance she does get drafted her best bet would be to be picked by the Royals. They'll end up bringing her up to the majors at one point and she can count on their fans to elect her to the All-Star Game.

 

...Eight hundred tons of smuggled frozen meat that was bound for restaurants, retailers and supermarkets in Hunan province of China was seized by Chinese authorities last Wednesday including a batch dating back to the 1970's. The seized meat included poultry and beef and some packages were so bad they were rotten. What I want to know is why anyone would want to hold on to meat from the 1970's and where the hell have they been keeping it all this time?

 

...I'm a big Van Halen fan dating back to the early days but like everything else in life it isn't the same now as it was then. I used to think Eddie Van Halen was one of the luckiest people I knew. Great guitarist in one of the top groups around and married to Valerie Bertinelli, who continues to be hot to this day. But it turns out that he's just a bitter man who can't help trashing the people that are around him. Too bad he isn't as good a person as he is a guitarist.

 

...Miley Cyrus is gay now? You don't pay attention for five minutes and look what happens.

 

...Last week Tampa Bay Rays  reliever Ronald Belisario did something that I haven't seen done since Little League when he tried to give an intentional pass to Cleveland's Michael Brantley but instead threw the ball over the catcher's head and towards the backstop. Jason Kipnis was on third base and he was as surprised as anyone else was but still managed to score without a throw. Which explains why a few days later the Rays designated him for assignment.

 

...Beginning on July 20th, the United States and Cuba are going to restore diplomatic ties for the first time in fifty-four years. This agreement will increase U.S. contact with ordinary Cubans which probably means there will be more Cuban players in the major leagues before long and the popular sport of illegal Cubans trying to get to America by boats will soon be a thing of the past.

 

...I bet cigar smokers all over the country are thrilled about this.

 

...Overheard at a sports bar as to why Michael Sam left the Montreal Alouettes the other week to attend to personal matters: "He had to attend a parade with Caitlyn Jenner." I never would have thought of that.

 

...Skynet is advancing, Dept: A stationary robot grabbed and crushed a man against a metal plate at one of Volkswagen's production plants in Germany last Wednesday. And the fact that a new Terminator movie just came out is nothing but a coincidence. The truth was that it was an American-made robot and the company was forcing it to constantly work overtime and it finally snapped. Happens all the time.

 

...If this happened here in the United States someone would twist it around and make it a racially motivated attack.

...The Washington Redskins are exploring the possibility of moving from their current home of FedEx Field in Maryland to return to the District of Columbia. The problem here is that D.C. owns RFK Stadium and the site for one proposed new stadium and there are unconfirmed rumors that the federal government would not permit the construction of a new stadium with the team's current name in place. That's nice. I'm sure everyone can make a list on one hand of more important things that the government should be concerned about but the name of a football team manages to be just as important. 

 

..You know what the sad part is? People who are looked at as "normal" are the same people offended by anything. 

 

...Like what is going on with the Redskins and what has been going on with them for years now many people seem so willing to jump on the latest bandwagon to back up the newest form of injustice that the media throws out there. The latest thing that everyone is on board with is the removal of the Confederate Flag from wherever it has been all these years because deep down we all know that piece of cloth is responsible for everything. Even TV Land had to jump in and show everyone that they were with them as they took off The Dukes of Hazzard because the car that Bo and Luke drove around (the General Lee) had a Confederate Flag painted on top of the car. That was that. The flag that was on top of that car from a TV series that has been off the air for thirty years now must of got someone in charge very nervous or instead that same person figured it would be a great opportunity to score points. The end result is that you can't watch this show on TV Land anymore and that is a shame because if you don't own Dukes on DVD you can't see Catherine Bach's legs anymore on a nightly basis. And all because of a flag. What a country. We don't just react to things here. We always over react.

 

[pitchleague]

Errant pitches on intentional walks probably occur once or twice a season, believe it or not.  I know I've seen it several times on MLB Network over the years.

Now, if you specifically meant wild pitches on intentional walks that allow a runner to score, that is probably more rare.  But also more common than you think.

I wonder if I can find that data on fangraphs or something.

[sabugo]

On the matter of the female Major Leaguer, I'm totally against it.

I make my living off of a sport in which this problem has been discussed a number of times, and every so often it comes up again.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is based on leverage, and learning the proper technique so that you'll be able to defeat much larger and stronger opponents. Women and girls often train with men, and as soon as they learn a certain amount of techniques and get used to the grind that BJJ is, it's not uncommon at all for them to tap out stronger and bigger men - sometimes driving some pussies with over-inflated egos to abandon BJJ right away.
My wife, for example, trains with men every day, and so does one of her cousins.

That being said, and despite the fact that my Mrs. is a complete badass who generally wtaps out men in training and has a lot of gold medals (both in weight and open-weight categories), it would make no sense at all to have her in a competitive environment facing men, for the following reasons:

- Men and women's bodies are very different, and now matter how strong a woman is, it would be almost impossible for them to be as strong as a man of the same weight.
- Biological differences in muscle fibers and testosterone production make for the fact that men are stronger and faster. That is science, not an opinion.
- Injury risks would be mutiplied by 10 if women competed against men.

Only men would benefit from competing against women, and that is simply unfair. I'm all for equality, but this is just plain wrong. In the same way you wouldn't expect to see girls doing construction work (which I have!).


On another matter, I've been saying this for years, even here: Americans overreact a lot. You guys seem to have trouble in finding a halfway measure. It's all or nothing. Like everything it has its pros and cons.

[Yankee4Life]

On another matter, I've been saying this for years, even here: Americans overreact a lot. You guys seem to have trouble in finding a halfway measure. It's all or nothing. Like everything it has its pros and cons.

No argument here Sabugo.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 7-12

...On occasion I may stretch the truth in here when I am talking about something to try and get a laugh but never when I am writing about stupid people because there is no reason to do it there because they do all the work for you. Every year on the Fourth of July someone gets killed or injured badly because they forget that drinking and fireworks don't mix and never will. There were a few injuries last week but nothing like what happened to a twenty-two-year-old man in Maine who spent the holiday knocking off beer cans and then thought it would be a hell of a good idea to launch a firework off the top of his head. Within seconds his hat size went from a size seven to a size zero because the firework blew his head off, killing him instantly. People described this guy as someone who would not do something stupid but would only pretend to do something stupid to make people laugh and that is why they can't understand why he did what he did. What's to understand? He drank a cooler full of beer by himself. That's why he did it.

...The Royals have four starters for the All-Star Game on Tuesday? The hell with that. Maybe for the first time ever I will be rooting for a National League win.

...Congratulations Brett Gardner. You deserve this All-Star nominee. Although you only got in because a Royal got hurt, but that's ok. 

...Tim McCarver is back doing occasional television work on the Cardinals broadcasting network. That's fine, let St. Louis have him. I'm just glad he is not the FOX analyst anymore because he would have ruined another mid-season classic for everyone.

...Even though he was found guilty and sentenced to death less than three weeks ago Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has filed a motion for a new trial based on what his lawyers are saying is "in the interest of justice." Whatever that means. He admitted his guilt, apologized for it, was found guilty and was given a death sentence. Bring on the next case. This guy has as much of a chance to win this case as someone in a poker game playing with a marked deck of cards that they aren't aware of.

...That time of year again, Dept: Just a quick glance at the sports calendar tells me that it's almost time for the NFL training camps to open up because the NFL players are starting to make headlines again in the only way they know how to. Green Bay Packers receiver Andrew Quarless was arrested in Miami after firing a semi-automatic handgun into the air two times in a parking garage after arguing with a woman. Quarless invited the woman to come up to Wisconsin with him for the summer and she refused because there is nothing to do in Green Bay. She's got a point. People who live in Green Bay don't want to be in Green Bay. So, after she said no three or four times he got mad and fired his gun in the air. No one got hit but he did knock down a bird's nest.

...If the Packers cut him he can always go to the Patriots since they are always on the lookout for a few good wanna-be felons.

...Even the college players are getting into it although what happened to freshman quarterback De'Andre Johnson is still a little sketchy. Florida State dismissed Johnson from the team the same day after prosecutors released a video of him punching a woman in a bar. The video that I have here from Youtube is over a minute long and has no sound to it. Johnson is claiming that the woman hurled racial insults at him when he accidentally made contact with her when he was walking up to the bar. So, who knows? Since he is only nineteen he still has a chance to get back on the team. Provided he stays out of bars.

           

 

...To agree or disagree with Donald Trump about his comments on Mexicans is one thing but you have to admit what he is doing especially in this day and age of claiming that you are misquoted or offering tear-filled apologies for something you said takes a lot of guts. Even with all the backlash he's been getting Trump is saying to everyone that yes, he did say it and yes, he meant it when he said that a lot of Mexicans who come to the United States are criminals, drug dealers and rapists. He had chances to offer rebuttals but chose not to. You just don't see that a lot these days. Too bad it came from someone I don't admire.

..I have to confess that I am not familiar with one song Kid Rock sings and all I know about him is that he was once married to Pamela Anderson and that the guy never seems to wash his hair. But I like what he told all the champions of the politically correct movement when they were protesting that he still displays the Confederate Flag at his concerts even after it has been removed in many places around the country. "Kiss my ass." he told the protesters. I support anyone that doesn't follow blindly behind the PC crowd.

...Usually the Hallmark Channel is a pretty good station to watch because they have a lot of mystery movies on there including reruns of Matlock, Diagnosis Murder and Columbo if you into those sort of shows. But last week I didn't watch a second of it because for some reason they are pushing Christmas on us wether we want it or not. Starting on July 3rd and ending today they are playing all Christmas movies every day. Why?? Christmas will be here before we know it. Why push it on everyone? Why can't they let us enjoy the summer?

...About seven hundred McDonald's restaurants will be closing in the U.S. this year nationwide and while they have not said which ones were going to get the ax they did say the ones that will be shut down are the locations which are "under performing." That means just about every inner-city McDonald's will be going bye-bye pretty soon and a whole bunch of unemployable teenage kids will be losing their job. 

...I was driving around last Thursday morning and suddenly I noticed the person in front of me had two stickers on the back of their car. The one on the left displayed the Red Sox logo and over on the right side was a sticker that had the Yankee logo. When do you ever see that? It's like going around claiming you are a Democrat and then the next day telling people you are a Republican. It made no sense.

...If nowadays it is politically incorrect to find a woman attractive then there is absolutely no hope for me because I find myself guilty of this serious infraction every single day. And if I am really having a good day, more than a few times a day. The FIFA website is under criticism for a comment they made about Alex Morgan, a forward for the U.S. National team.  They described her as a "talented goal scorer with a style that is very easy on the eye and good looks to match." I don't see what the problem was with that but when you are someone who spends their days looking for something to be offended by you'll take what you can get. I don't think there is any problem saying that a woman is good looking. The last I heard it was a compliment and I am sure Alex Morgan is not hiding out somewhere because she is all embarrassed. Men get the same thing but nothing's said about it. Listen to the next time Tom Brady's name is brought up. After they get done talking about what he did with those footballs they'll compliment him on his looks and how he has a supermodel for a wife. Derek Jeter was another example. Since he came up to the big leagues I can't recall how many times someone said that he had "matinee idol good looks." He didn't take offense. Would you? Saying someone is easy on the eye is not an insult and if it is we all should be insulted like that.

...Now Han Solo is going to get his own stand-alone movie? Who's next, Boba Fett?

...If you can believe this, the record amount of snow that the Boston area got this past winter is still not gone yet.  Here it is the middle of July and if that last snow pile can manage to hang around for another four months it will be getting a lot more company. What a place to live.

...Last Tuesday the FBI searched the home of Subway spokesman Jared Fogle and confiscated electronic equipment belonging to an employee of his that worked on his foundation to eliminate childhood obesity. This employee was under investigation for child pornography. Even though Fogle cooperated with the FBI in every way and was never arrested because he was not the guy that they were looking for, Subway decided to suspend their relationship with him. It doesn't matter that the guy is innocent. Once you get your name within ten feet of child porn you've had it and it took Subway all of five seconds to tell him goodbye. America! Home of the free, land of the brave and to hell with the facts. If the public thinks you are guilty then you are. You know, like the 2006 Duke Lacrosse team.

...I don't know how Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush thinks people are going to react when in order to grow back the economy people should work longer hours. Let's see....that would be a no. Next candidate please.

...Poor Ariana Grande. She must be having a hard time making ends meet if she has to resort to licking donuts that don't belong to her. That's what happens when Miley Cyrus is out of town. Her tongue has a mind of its own. And I don't want to be lewd here but I am sure mostly every guy in America must have been thinking if she wants to lick something she can lick something else. Just saying.  And as far as this pig saying she hates America and Americans, I don't understand that at all. She was born here. She only apologized because she was caught on video and her agent and lawyers told her to.

...Whoopi Goldberg is finding out first-hand what happens when you don't play nice and follow along with the crowd. People have been threatening her family because of her continued support of Bill Cosby. She has this crazy notion of him being innocent until proven guilty. Such old-fashioned values don't hold up anymore in this country because now you are tried on the pages of CNN and every other media outlet and if they say you are guilty then you are. End of story. The sooner Whoopi learns this the better she and her family will end up being. [/end sarcasm] 

...I went to go see San Andreas on Friday afternoon and I really was surprised that it took me that long to see it because it was a fantastic movie. I thought it was just as good as Jurassic World and I really would have a hard time choosing what was the better movie. This is another one that I'll be grabbing on blu-ray even though nothing looks as good as it does on the big screen. After I was leaving the theater I could not help wondering to myself how much this movie made people from California nervous?

...Last week I wrote about the stupid redneck in Texas who jumped into a bayou despite a verbal warning from an employee there and who ignored a sign posted that said "No Swimming Alligators." Well, this guy ignored all that and one lucky alligator got a special dinner for the Fourth of July holiday. Unfortunately for the animal it was one of its last too because last Thursday a hunter spotted and trapped the four hundred pound, 11½-foot alligator and shot it in the head. No wonder why that guy who jumped in never had a chance. The man who shot the gator said he did it to protect his three kids and others who walk and swim near the bayou. Instead of being given a pat on the back and a handshake he was let off with a warning and will not be charged with shooting the alligator. That's what I don't get. These things are dangerous. More of them should be shot every day. What good do these animals do? The only time you hear about them is when they are taking someone's arm off or worse. Like what happened here.

...Happy Birthday Dylan Bradbury (in two days) wherever you are! Your schedules were invaluable for us Mvp users.

 

Edited July 12, 2015 by Yankee4Life

[scottybilly]

Alligators have survived and thrived for millions of years. They have every right to live in their natural habitat. Its goddam people that go/ move into the alligator's habitat, then kill them by the thousands for no reason except food, profit, or just because they see them as a threat. Personally I laugh whenever people are attacked, killed, eaten by predatory animals like sharks, lions, tigers, alligators, crocodiles, bears, komodo dragons, giant snakes, giant fish, etc. What the hell did they expect? Shame on anybody for being where they don't belong and putting themselves or others in danger. And shame on anybody for shooting and killing the offending animal for doing what is in its nature to do.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 7-19

...Random All-Star views, Dept: Baseball showed again that they have the best All-Star Game around last Tuesday night and to have the American League win it was extra special, not that it will do the Yankees any good... Now if they can just get rid of that dumb rule that Bud Selig threw in a few years back about the winning league getting home field advantage in the World Series everything will be fine...Although Mike Trout won the MVP a good case could have been made for Prince Fielder of the Rangers...Those All-Star practice jerseys and game hats looked great this year. Someone did a good job there...It was nice seeing Sandy Koufax again during the pre-game festivities but not Pete Rose. Considering how I feel about him I would have cheered if Ray Fosse had showed up and bowled him over like Rose did to him forty-five years ago...Good to see Bryce Harper fall on his face. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy...After listening to Joe Buck and Harold Reynolds for a few innings I am convinced that the powers-that-be at FOX hate baseball. Why else would they throw Reynolds in the booth? So, you're happy that Tim McCarver's gone? Ok, let's see how you like this guy... Not a lot of people watched this game on FOX as it drew a record-low television rating. I did my part though...The sad realization when this game was all over? The season is half done.  

...Now we all play the who is going to get traded game until July 31st and a big part of that game is watching what the Yankees do until the trade deadline is over. Yankee haters laugh at how much they over-react during July's trade time. Yankee fans laugh too but for a different reason. There are rumors that the Yankees could be looking at Cincinnati's Johnny Cueto and I hope that this is all that it turns out to be even though the Yankees and Reds have a history of trading at this time of year. To get this guy, who experienced elbow stiffness at the end of May, would cost the Yankees a lot in young talent and it would be a huge risk. That being said don't be shocked if you see Cueto get a haircut soon and wear pinstripes. Another guy I want to see stick around is Rob Refsnyder. At least this guy deserves a chance. He had a nice debut in Boston one week ago and then he was charged with two errors in the ninth inning that got the game a little closer than the Yankees wanted. Who knows if they use that as an excuse to trade him? I don't trust their logic anymore.

...Really, do I need any more reasons to hate David Ortiz? No, but while I was occupied elsewhere he gave me a few more. Ortiz is being questioned for missing the final game before the break last Sunday against the Yankees because he said he was sick. Some Boston media people do not believe he was and that he made up a phony illness as soon as he found out the Red Sox wanted him to play first base in the final game of the Yankee series. In fact the guy had his bags packed on Saturday and was ready to hop on a plane back to the Dominican on Sunday morning just as soon as the Red Sox doctors caved in and told everyone that he was indeed sick and the only way he will get better is to leave the country and spend time with his family. Some players get bonuses for making the All-Star team. These doctors got bonuses for saying Ortiz was sick.

He wasn't done though. Before he got the plane back to the Dominican he questioned the 502-foot home run that Ted Williams hit in 1946 as an out-and-out lie. I don't know why Ortiz had to bring this up now. Maybe it's because Williams is still a more-beloved Red Sox player than he ever will be. Who knows? Ortiz said he did not believe that Williams or anyone else hit a ball that far at Fenway Park because one time he went up there and sat in the seat and he decided right then and there that it was too far from home plate for anyone to reach it. Sure it was. It was 502 feet and someone who didn't relay on steroids hit it. That was his entire argument. If he couldn't hit it there there was no way anyone else could. Like I said, if I needed any more justification to dislike this guy.

...Lazy Robinson Cano does nothing all year except for yesterday when he hit two home runs at Yankee Stadium to lead Seattle to victory. He'll probably need the day off in today's 1:00 p.m. finale for the two times he jogged around the bases.

...With the aid of other inmates, prison guards, his cousin the warden and people on the outside, world-famous drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman escaped a maximum security prison in Mexico last week. This isn't the first time he's done this and when he finally retires up to his bungalow high in the mountains this guy ought to write a book on how he did it. U.S. and Mexican officials (well, not really the Mexicans) are hot on his trail but he has not been found yet. One rumor has it that he is headed to New York to work on the Donald Trump presidential election campaign.

...I can not believe how much uproar over Go Set a Watchman, Harper Lee's new book that was released last Tuesday caused. Set twenty years in the future after the events that made up the book To Kill a Mockingbird, Atticus Finch, the lawyer played by Gregory Peck in the movie is a different person in this book than readers remember him by. Some people are refusing to read the book because -you guessed it- they're offended by it. It's a fictional book and people are getting this upset? It won't be long now until a good old fashion book burning party takes place.

...After a jury ordered him to pay five million dollars in an invasion-of-privacy lawsuit, rapper 50 Cent filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in order to help him avoid paying the hefty fine. This guy has one hell of a history and is a hero to rap fans everywhere. He is an admitted former crack dealer and has been shot nine times to prove it. At least he has a skill to fall back on if his rap career goes to pieces. And now he's bankrupt. 50 Cent. His name was so prophetic.

...July 15 came and went and I managed to purchase nothing from that great Amazon Prime sale that was going on that day. I would have but there was nothing I really needed. From what I gathered a lot of people did not like the deals that Amazon had but I thought they were ok. The price for the Amazon Fire was great but I'd never use it. I got a Nook and I only use that once a month or so.

...A Connecticut man who had a habit of purchasing two twenty dollar lottery tickets at the convenient store he goes to is now thirty thousand dollars richer all because he forgot his glasses. The guy usually buys his tickets from the store clerk but because there was a long line at the time he was there he decided to buy a ticket from a lottery vending machine. Since he couldn't see straight he mistakenly bought a thirty dollar ticket instead of his usual twenty dollar ones. When he got home his glasses were right on the kitchen table where he left them and that is where he passed out after finding out how much he won. Needless to say you can bet he didn't see that coming.

...Maybe that's why I haven't won the lottery yet. I never forget my glasses when I go out.

...Well, that didn't take long. Universal Studios announced last Wednesday that the DVD and blu-ray release of Jurassic World in the United Kingdom will be on October 19th. The movie's only been out for a little more than a week and already they announce this. Not that it will do any of us that live in the states any good because our release date hasn't been given out yet. 

...It's really something how much the world has changed. Children from all over the country have been running lemonade stands for generations now and the only real problems that any of them faced was not running out of ice cubes. I recall when I was a kid there was one of these stands near the fields and the kid who ran it made close to ten dollars a day. In those days that was pretty good. Anyway, two young girls in Overton, Texas decided to have a lemonade stand for themselves but the police there shut it down because they lacked a permit. That little town must be the safest place in all of America if the police had enough time to tell these kids to pack up their lemons and head on home. Today it's lemonade. Tomorrow it could be bagels and pastries. Someone's got to keep the streets safe down there!

...There are a lot of questions as to why another young low-life degenerate Muslim man -someone described by people who knew him as likeable and "Americanized as anyone else"- to open fire on two U.S. military sites in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Before he was shot and killed by Chattanooga police he killed four Marines and one Navy man and injured a handful of others. From all accounts he was the typical boy-next-door but in this case the kid next door was a Muslim and that means you keep the doors locked and a suspicious eye on them at all all times. If that sounds harsh or unreasonable, too bad. They've painted themselves in that light. The military needs to step up too and answer one very important and obvious question. How come none of the Marines were armed? If they were he never would have made it to that second military site. Only the policeman from the town of Chattanooga were armed and that was a good thing because those were the guys who eventually took him down. But of course the damage was already done. So what happens to make a seemingly happy and normal young Muslim male wake up one day and decide to do something like this? Beats me, but try to compare it to this analogy. What makes an animal snap at its owner after being with him for so many years? Rottweilers and pit bulls are known for this. One day they are your friend and the next day you are learning to write left-handed. It's in their DNA. Same for these maniacs.

...Party by proxy, Dept: Yesterday around here the thermometer was over ninety degrees with the humidity even higher than that and I was invited to a graduation party for a kid that I have not seen in years and if I stood next to him in line at 7-11 I would not be the wiser. When you have central air in your house you need a much better reason to leave it than for something like this. So, I provided what they were really after when I got my invitation when I put a twenty-dollar bill in an envelope and gave it to someone who was actually going and who could not think of a good excuse to get out of it. The kid wouldn't have known I was there anyway so I figured why bother showing up?

...Sarah Palin's subscriber-based online channel, where she had membership rates of $9.95 a month or $99.95 annually is shutting down. She started the site so she could connect directly to viewers without a media filter. The problem was not a lot of people signed up for the monthly or yearly plan outside of her immediate family and ever since her daughter Bristol announced she was pregnant again all people have been asking her was if she knew who the father was and if they could come to the baby shower.

[Yankee4Life]

Updated to 7-26

...With all due respect to the drama and excitement we see each year with October baseball, this upcoming week will be just as tense and nerve-wracking. The trade deadline expires this Friday at 4:00 p.m. eastern time and that gives each team a lot of time to get rid of some big contracts to try and improve their team or dismantle it so they can begin again. I don't care what their reasons are I can't stand this week and I never have. Brian Cashman has already gone on record saying that there is a good chance that the Yankees will stand pat as July 31st approaches but I hold as much faith in that as I do in someone who tells you that the check is in the mail.

...Barry Bonds had a hell of a week. The U.S. Department of Justice decided to drop what was left of its criminal case against him. It took them over a decade to decide this and after they spent six million dollars on his initial trial. And that does not count the cost of what the appeal process involved. There's no way of knowing what the actual dollar and cents amount of this was unless the government decides to release that figure and I don't see them doing that any time soon. One thing I never understood was why they got involved with this in the first place. Why did they care if an athlete did or did not do PED's? Bonds may be off the hook here but his Hall of Fame chances seem as closed as this case now is. Thank God for that.

...Trump again. This guy keeps on saying the most outrageous and insulting things about people but the funny thing is that as many people who are upset at what he has been saying there is just as many people who are supporting him. I'm no fan of John McCain and I would not have voted for him for president back in 2008 even if someone on his campaign staff would have quietly written me a check. Trump said he wasn't a fan of McCain's because he spent five and a half years in a North Vietnamese prison and he says he's only a war hero because he was captured and that he liked people who weren't captured. Um, come again? That comment wasn't just below the belt it was below the ankles. And yet there were people who nodded their heads and agreed with him. I respect what McCain did during his time in Vietnam because that's something I know I wouldn't be able to do. Five and one half years? I wouldn't be able to stay captive for the length of a movie. I read that he has a net worth of about ten billion dollars. When you are that rich it is hard to keep track of the exact dollar amount because calculators don't go up that high. But whatever it may be, ten, eleven or twelve billion he has more than enough to buy a presidency. That right there should worry us all unless you are one of those who think McCain was a slacker.

...Just checking, Dept: There is a pub over in Scotland that is known for its traditional atmosphere and because of that the male employees who work there wear kilts as part of the pub's theme. At least they used to. Because of repeated harassment from female patrons who lift their kilts just to check if they are "true Scotsmen" the employees now are abandoning the kilts and will be wearing pants from now on. Oh yeah, I mean sure, I can see the harassment right there. Right.

...Mark, wherever you are I'd love your opinion on this.

...A woman in Tennessee was arrested last week for trying to pass counterfeit money at a gas station and when the police arrested her for it she told them not to worry about it because President Obama said it was legal. Since he's been in office I have seen him be blamed for everything but this one has to be at the top of the list. The five dollar bill that she gave to the clerk was printed out on a home printer with the two sides of the bill glued together. In her purse the police found a fake one hundred dollar bill that was printed in black and white and the back of the bill was upside down. Frank Bourassa she is not.

...I am all for eating and drinking more responsibly and being aware of what you are eating too. I have been trying to do that for long time now and I feel a lot better for it. But when Oreo introduces a thin version of their cookie that's when things are going too far.

...I'm sorry but Amy Schumer is just not funny.

...In what could be the best radio interview that I have ever heard, a twenty-two-year-old woman went on an Atlanta radio show to complain about her terrible luck in meeting her senior year college tuition. Her grandparents created a college fund for her worth $90,000 and she managed to blow through it with no way to cover her remaining $20,000 tuition balance for her final year. According to her it wasn't her fault that she got herself in this mess. It was her parents fault because they didn't teach her to budget. She used a lot of the money for school clothes and college break money. This airhead didn't go to Florida like a lot of college kids do. She went to Europe and she tried to justify that as something that was "part of her education." She's mad at her parents because they said there was nothing they could do for her and she thinks they are lying to her when they said they didn't have any money because she knows they have a retirement account. She was serious. She has no idea how fortunate she was to have that much money to attend college but God has a way of watching over idiots like this so it wouldn't surprise me in the least to find out she lands on her feet here. Welcome to the selfish generation. Entitled, ungrateful, and wasteful.

...Nice try, Dept: A woman was arrested in Bogota, Columbia last week after it was discovered that she was carrying 1.5 kg (or 3.3 lbs) of liquid cocaine in her breast implants. She was attempting to travel to Spain but security officials noticed that she was getting very nervous while waiting in line so they stopped her and questioned her. When they had her step in the X-Ray machine they discovered that there was recent surgery done on her breasts and that's when she confessed they were filled with cocaine. Damn, if she was carrying around more than three pounds worth she must have been worth a bundle. I'm sure that they had to pat her down two or three times for "safety measures." I know one thing, this incident gives a bust a whole new meaning.

...Today is induction day down in Cooperstown, New York and although it is a reasonable four hour drive from my house it may as well only be a forty minute drive because I know from personal experience that even though this is the biggest weekend of the year for that wonderful little village it is also the same weekend to make plans to do something else. Try to picture fitting twenty thousand people together on a baseball infield without having them bump into each other. It's not going to happen. I found that out in 2000 when my wife and I took an unplanned trip to Cooperstown only to discover that thousands of people had the same idea and beat us there and took all the parking spaces too. It may be a small town but they know how to price gouge with the best of them especially with all those people around. On one hand it was nice to walk around and get a glimpse of some of the Hall of Famers. I can still recall seeing Willie Stargell sitting behind a table on the sidewalk signing autographs for people and some of the real women ballplayers who played baseball during World War II were signing too not too far away from him. That's the good part of induction weekend. But if you are traveling a longer distance to get there you're going to want to be able to walk around and see what Cooperstown has to offer. And as for getting into the actual museum? Forget it. There's a line longer than home plate to second base of people wanting to get in and that line always looked like it was stuck because it wasn't going anywhere. The only time you moved forward was when someone ahead of you got out of line because they didn't want to wait anymore. So I hope it is a good day for all the inductees except for Pedro Martinez but I'll be watching this on TV.

...Even though there are signs all over the place at Yellowstone National Park warning visitors that it is dangerous to approach the wildlife a female guest last week thought that sign was for everyone else but her. The woman from Mississippi, which probably explains a lot, went up to a bison and tried to snap a selfie photo next to the park's most famous inhabitants. Unfortunately she did not know that bisons are extremely camera shy and while she was preparing to take the picture he ran up behind her, gored her and tossed her in the air. Luckily for her she only had minor injuries. If this is what it takes for all these people from taking endless selfies, so be it.

...I am not sure if I am going to go and see that new Southpaw movie. It's hard to watch a boxing movie without Sylvester Stallone in it.

...If you know of any country-music fans you may want to check on them because a lot of those people are really taking it hard with the news of Miranda Lambert and Blake Shelton's divorce. Most of them weren't even invited to their wedding but they're still crying anyway. Half of the people are saying it is Shelton's fault because he drank to much and the other half are saying Shelton couldn't take listening to his wife's voice anymore, singing or talking.

...Similar to what he has done to many of his opponents in the ring, Hulk Hogan was taken down fast and hard last Friday with no chance to get up and no chance to recover all because of an unauthorized recording of something he said about his daughter eight years ago. I have not heard the tape and I am not interested in listening to it either. The media has conveniently posted the key transcripts of it to make Hogan look as bad as possible.

Hogan was caught talking about the dating life of his daughter, Brooke and was worried that she may have went to bed with a black man. Naturally the famous "N" word was brought up and if you don't know what word I mean just listen to the first rap song you come across. They'll say it at least sixty times a minute.

That's all it took for the WWE to remove all content about Hogan from their website including his place in their Hall of Fame. In other words they are pretending that he never existed like a group of children giving the cold shoulder to another kid. "Hey," the WWE is saying "we know he's been with us for over thirty years but that means nothing."

I am not defending or supporting what Hogan said. All I am saying is why does this guy have to pay the price for something he said in private eight years ago? The statutes of limitations for many crimes don't even last that long. And if this sounds like I am a big Hulk Hogan fan and was into all that Hulkamania nonsense then you're wrong. My favorites were Roddy Piper and Paul Orndorff before he turned into a good guy. What I do not like is this guy or anyone for that matter forced to pay for something like this because of what other people may think. How many times have we all said something in private that we would rather not have a lot of people know about? Was it yesterday? Last week? Last month? Last year? Doesn't matter. What if there is a recording of you on someone else's phone with you saying something that will come back and bite you hard? That's what is happening with Hogan right now. The guy gets his privacy invaded, an unauthorized tape of him is made and because people have this sick pleasure of tearing down celebrities and ruining their lives.

I don't give a damn what this guy says in private. And it shouldn't be anyone's business either.

[Gordo]

Gotta differ with you on boxing movies.  Cinderella Man was great.  But you're spot on about Schumer.  Seems like trash humor by the girls is the latest wave, but it does nothing for me.

[Porkchop#1]

What makes his private conversation seem so bad, is that is what he really feels if he even would say that in private.  Being a manager for a long time, we take all kind of courses on perception, diversity, etc.  This will be hard for him to come back from for sure.

I used to watch the Hulkamania cartoon in the early 80's before we would go to the skating rink on Saturdays, so this does suck to see one of my childhood athletes go down this way.

Just my two cents.