Yankee4Life

What the hell are you talking about?

Thank you pitchleague. I understand what you meant about the Boston and Ortiz stuff. But every time I told myself I would not write about them that week they ended up doing something that I could not ignore.

Thank you Fiebre I really appreciate it.

Updated to 10-4 ...It was the last full week of regular season games in baseball last week and again I got to wonder where the time went. Opening Day and the All-Star game seemed like five minutes ago. Baseball is so captivating that you lose track of time when you follow it. There is a full slate of games today and then the 2015 season will be in the books and the roller coaster ride known as the post season begins on Tuesday night. Hang on tight, it should be fun. ...I don't know about any of you but I survived this baseball season just fine without Derek Jeter being a part of it. ...I'm glad the Yankees made it back to the post season but if you think I am going around high-fiving every Yankee fan I see you should stop and think again. This is a flawed team whose offense always finds a way to shut down at the worst possible times. I don't want them to lose this wildcard game on Tuesday but it would not be a big surprise if they do. I'll put it this way. I wouldn't put any money on them. ...The Washington Nationals will be watching the post season this year at home or at a sports bar just like the rest of us but they made sure to get a lot of attention in baseball's final week anyway. Selfish loudmouth reliever Jonathan Paplebon got into a fist fight with selfish entitled loudmouth outfielder Bryce Harper because Harper after hitting a fly ball against the Phillies last week. The way the Nationals have been playing that was the most excitement they gave to their fans in the entire second half of the season. The Nationals punished Harper by telling him he couldn't play in last Monday's game against Cincinnati. Paplebon was suspended four games by the team and combined with his three game suspension set by major league baseball for hitting Manny Machado of Baltimore, the final period of his season was put in place one week before the rest of his teammates. And that brings up the question of whether Paplebon will be back in D.C. next year after putting a choke hold on their wonder boy? When you think of all the good guys in baseball Jonathan Paplebon's name never comes up in the conversation and the same can be said for Harper. As talented as Harper is he rubs a lot of people the wrong way because of his attitude and because of that quite a few players sided with Paplebon when they learned about that dugout fight. That's how disliked Harper is. When people side with a guy like Paplebon you know you are doing something wrong. I wasn't pulling for anyone in that fight. I was hoping for a draw. At least Harper's stupid grin on his face was wiped off for a few minutes. Should have punched him right in the jaw. ...Water was found on Mars last week by NASA scientists. That discovery led them to believe that there could be hope for life on that planet. Can you imagine if twenty or fifty or one hundred years down the road they actually discover people -or I should say Martians- living there? NASA would probably want to know where they been because they've stayed out of site of their Reconnaissance Orbiter. Who knows, maybe that thing makes a lot of noise and it gave them time to hide. Let me speculate even further. What if the males end up displaying some athletic talent? What if they are observed throwing extremely hard and running fast? The Red Sox would commandeer a space ship just so they could be the first to sign one. ...The Oakland Athletics hired a woman as part of the coaching staff for Oakland's Instructional League club which begins later this month. It's a two-week job that will consist of her of throwing batting practice, hitting fungos and generally getting in the way all the time. Whatever. Maybe the Athletics should be more concerned with winning games instead of making statements. ...A Costco store in Los Angeles was giving away free Nutella waffle samples last weekend and if you have never tried them you should. They're fantastic. They are like Lays potato chips. There is no way you have just one. And it seems that is exactly what one particular twenty-four-year-old man in the crowd was doing. As fast as the store employee brought the Nutella out it was just as fast as this guy was hoarding them. Finally a guy in the crowd told him to just take one and for his unsolicited comment this seventy-eight-year-old man got punched in the face by the younger man and was hospitalized with a one-inch cut and swelling above his eye. The guy was charged with elder abuse and held on $50,000 bail, and he faces a maximum sentence of eleven years in prison if convicted. All because he was hungry. Costco acted quickly and had the police at the store within minutes to arrest the man and it wasn't a moment too soon because the guy was getting ready to move on to the free hot dog samples next. ...And this is why people hate lawyers. A few years back a photographer in Indonesia left his digital camera unattended and a monkey picked it up and started playing around with it. When he had it in his hands the monkey managed to take a few snapshots of himself while he appeared to be smiling into the camera. These images later on were included in a wildlife book and now animal rights activists have filed a federal lawsuit that the monkey who snapped those photos should be declared the photo's owner and receive damages for copyright infringement. Just when I thought I heard it all I find out again I was wrong. Maybe the photographer can counter-sue the monkey for using his camera without written or verbal permission. If this goes to trial will jury be made up of six humans and six monkeys? PETA is the organization that is behind this lawsuit and they're serious about this and they are sending out people right now to the island of Sulawesi to find that monkey so that they can bring him back to testify for the upcoming trial. These guys mean business. ...A winery tasting room in California was robbed last week at gunpoint by a man wearing a mask and an Elvis wig. The combination of disguises worked because he got away with four hundred dollars cash. Where the hell are you going to go with four hundred dollars? Maybe he was just desperate to get back to Vegas. Before he left he made sure the employee was comfortable as he locked him in a restroom and had him pick out his favorite bottle of bubbly to keep him company with. By the time the cops got there the guy was more than halfway drunk and the last thing he remembered the thief saying to him was 'thank you, thank you very much.' ...A disc jockey who got fired from his country-western music station in Denver is suing Taylor Swift because he was accused of copping a feel of her ass backstage at one of her concerts recently. According to the DJ what actually happened was that a colleague of his was backstage too and he was the guy who was boasting about groping her. A member of Swift's security team then kicked him out of the concert and when his radio station found out what happened they immediately fired him. I don't know which one of them was the one that had a grab at Taylor Swift but one thing's for certain and that is they really had to work for it because her back side looks like an ironing board. ...Part of the job of the China National Tourism Administration consists of compiling a list of names of Chinese citizens that have been accused of uncivilized behavior during their travels around the world. That's what happened to four Chinese tourists recently when they were trying to get home from Bangkok recently. Their flight home was delayed by eight hours and by the time their plane took off at 3:00 am they were more than just a little tired and upset and for anyone who has been forced to wait at an airport you can understand how they were feeling. But it's what they did as the hours started piling up is what got them in trouble with the folks back home. In the departure lounge where they were waiting they caused a scene by being disruptive to people around them as they were yelling and shouting and at one point started singing the Chinese national anthem as loud as their voices would allow them too. Unfortunately for them someone recorded it and now the tourism administration has added their names to that list and that is where it will remain for the next two to three years. This doesn't mean they can't travel but airlines and travel agencies can check this list at any time and in turn they have the option of refusing them service. Can you imagine if they had something like that in this country? The entire city of Boston would be on that list. ...Not that anyone would want to, but to know what true frustration is like all you have to do is try to talk through a computer issue over the phone with someone who knows nothing about them except how to spell the word. You get nowhere fast and if you happen to break through and make them understand something they'll have you repeat it five or six more times just to be sure. This is what happened to me last week and just thinking back on it now makes the back of my head behind my temples hurt. It all started with an unexpected phone call that I received last Wednesday evening from someone I used to work with. He wanted me to come over to install CCleaner, a program that he used to have on his computer that he wanted back on because when his son-in-law worked on his system for him he uninstalled it for one reason or another and he wanted to have it back on to clear his history in his web browser. That's easy enough to do but naturally I made it hard on myself when I told him that in a browser like Firefox you can clear your cache any time you wanted to. And that's where the problem started... ME: First of all, what web browser do you use? I have Firefox. HIM: I don't have that, I have Mozilla. ME: That's what I meant. Now get into your web browser and click on "options." HIM: Ok, I found that. Should I try to delete that? ME: Delete what? HIM: Options. ME: No. And you couldn't do it anyway if you wanted to. Now when you are in there do you see the icon that says privacy? HIM: Yes I do. ME: Now click on it. Right in the middle of that box you will see something that says clear your recent history. Click on that and let it do what it has to do. (He did it and he talked me through what the browser did and when it was all done he let me know.) ME: Ok, let me show you what you did when you cleared your history. Even though you don't have to do it, exit your browser and then get back in it. HIM: Sure, give me a minute. (At this point it was taking longer than a minute.) ME: Everything ok there? HIM: Sure, no problem. I'm restarting the computer. ME: Why did you do that? HIM: You told me to. ME: No, I said exit your browser. Ok, look, never mind that. Get in your browser again. Now in the address bar click on that little arrow on the right. You should see no other addresses below that line. HIM: That's right, they're gone. What if I want them back? ME: Just go to the website again. I'll stop here. It went on for another ten minutes or so as I had to repeat myself. The only good thing was that I was able to talk him through this and that helped me avoid going over there in person to do it. ...Yeah, but you only turn 18 once, Dept: Well, you got to give her credit for planning ahead. A mother in England bought twelve bags of cocaine for her daughter's upcoming birthday this coming February because she and her daughter were planning on taking a limousine into London to celebrate her birthday and nothing says happy birthday as well as a dozen bags of cocaine. Regrettably new plans are now going to have to be made because the cocaine reserved for the girls special day is now in the hands of the police and it was all because of a routine visit. They came by to talk to the mother because she already had six previous convictions, including one for possessing amphetamine in 2010. When the police dog they brought started sniffing out the coke she admitted that she purchased it for her daughter's birthday. For the possession of the cocaine she was sentenced to a nine-month suspended sentence and two hundred and fifty hours of community service which she will not be paid for. Now she's going to have to go and make a cake or go out and buy one for her daughter when her birthday gets here but that just won't be the same. Nothing says happy birthday like cocaine in a limo. ...Where else but Florida, Dept: I have to say one thing about Florida and that is that they never seem to disappoint. You can always count on them to supply more than their share of stupid human stories on a weekly basis. Not even Massachusetts is close to them. A twenty-nine-year-old man from Port Lucie was trying to text his drug dealer because he wanted to buy some cocaine. The problem was he accidentally texted his request to the police Captain of the Martin County Sheriff's Narcotics Unit. I've heard of dialing wrong numbers before and this kind of falls in that category but this is ridiculous. The cops originally thought someone was messing with them until they realized this guy was on the level. So they agreed to meet him and instead of meeting up with Carlos the cocaine guy, two narcotics detectives were there to greet him instead. The guy was charged with one count possession of cocaine with the intent to sell and was held in jail on a $40,000 bond. And all of this could have been avoided had he just saved his dealer's number into his contacts. ...After years of people asking for the option to "dislike" a Facebook post they are finally about to get their wish. Right now Facebook says their dislike button is in the testing stage and depending on how the results of that go it will be available for all users. I am not a member of Facebook but I already can see problems with this because some people already take this thing too seriously. I remember reading a few years back someone getting killed all because that person unfriended someone. That person didn't like that at all so just to let them know how much they were upset by what happened they shot the other person to death. This dislike feature is going to start arguments and end friendships. It shouldn't, but that's what will happen. ...For some reason another Austin Powers movie is going to be made. If there was one series of movies that should have called it quits after the second one it's this one. ...A woman in Florida was arrested because police say she made up a lie about being kidnapped just so she wouldn't have to return to her job as a night shift nursing assistant. It must have been one hell of a hospital she was working at for her to do something like this. She was on her break one night and when she didn't return from it one of her co-workers got concerned and she called her up and the woman told her that she was being held against her will by her boyfriend. That's when the cops were called and five different law enforcement agencies spent a few hours looking for her until they found her unharmed. She was arrested for falsely reporting a kidnapping but there was a bit of good news for her in all of this because the hospital that she worked at decided they could go on without her and they let her go. Now she doesn't have to worry about going back to work. We all know what she did wrong here. She made up too big of a lie to get out of work. You have to keep it short and simple. The best excuse I ever heard from from a former co-worker of mine when he called in sick one morning. "I'm tired" he replied, "and I'm not coming in today." How the hell do you beat that? ...I took a little trip to Aldi's last Friday afternoon because I have found that those people have the best Mandarin oranges that I have ever had. I can eat fruit all day. I had my back towards everyone while I was putting the cans in my cart and that meant that I did not see a mother with her little daughter coming down the aisle and I was only made aware of them when they were almost directly behind me when the kid decided to scream because she wanted candy and did not want to go home. Look, I know I am unsympathetic many times towards screaming children. That's because I don't have kids myself and partly the reason for that is because I don't like screaming, out of control children. I got as far away from them as fast as I could but no matter where I was in the store it was like I was right next to them. That kid had a set of lungs on her and she knew how to use them. I think the only one who wasn't bothered by her was her mother and that must have been because she lost her hearing at one point because she was around this kid too long. I didn't get everything I needed and I had to go back yesterday to get the rest. ...This one's going to be a tough one. ...I am pulling the plug on Random Thoughts after ten years. It has taken a lot of my time during the week to write, re-write and edit each individual post and I think it is time to move on. To blame the lack of interest in this thread over the past few years would be wrong. That's how it's been all over this website. No one posts anymore. Just the other day on the front page I noticed that the last post made was fourteen hours old. That didn't happen years ago. I really don't know why I started this back in October of 2005 and I certainly did not expect it to last this long. A combination of many things made this thread what it was. I based what I wrote on personal opinion, the heavy use of artistic license along with satire and humor. I did not want to write something week after week that had no humor or substance. I either wanted to make people laugh when they read this thread or have them say to themselves 'what the hell is he talking about?' Or both. I had a private message a few years back from someone who is no longer here and he asked me where I got my ideas to write about. That was easy I told him. Newspapers, TV, internet sites such as CNN and the shoutbox right here at Mvpmods. You guys would bring up stuff in there that I wasn't aware of yet and then I would go off to read about it and before I knew it I had something else to comment on. Basically you just had to keep your eyes open. It also helped me a lot to go to a few sources that never, ever let me down and always gave me something good to write about. I may hate David Ortiz but I loved writing about him. Nothing he did over the years got past me and I made sure to write about it all. Every temper tantrum, every time during spring training he would cry for a new contract, his steroid use, his loafing around the bases and the stupid things he would say when a microphone was nearby. This guy was a gold mine. I don't wish for anything bad to happen to the guy but at the same time I would not object if he had a constant pitter-patter of little defeats. Like misplacing his car keys for example or locking himself out of the house. Or getting deported. Stuff like that. Commenting on what goes on in the states of Massachusetts and Florida helped a lot too. You can almost make a weekly thread on just what these people do. Florida is a congregation of inbred criminals who have no common sense and if any of you happen to live in Florida I am not saying this is what you are. I'm talking about the people down there who get arrested for the dumbest stuff imaginable. Massachusetts is actually a beautiful state to visit but that's where Boston happens to be so for me that cancels everything out. I have taken some heat over the years (and recently) from things I have said in here and that's ok. They are just opinions and that means they are not right or wrong. I have never asked anyone to agree with me. All I wanted to have people do was read this each week and either laugh, agree with me or yell at me and tell me I'm wrong. Well, that's that. For those of you that have been reading this all these years I want to thank you. And I can't leave without thanking Trues, the owner of this great website. Not once did he tell me what I can or can not say. He understood what this thread was about from the very beginning. This thread was once over one hundred fifty pages long at one point and now it is down to sixty-five. I lost over half of the thread when we had the site upgrade back in April and I have no idea where those missing pages are now. I'm still hoping they can be recovered. Thank you everyone. Will I miss doing this? You bet. Let's put it this way. I'm closing the door on this but I have not turned the locks yet.

There is a saying that goes like this. Toleration is the best religion. And that makes so much sense. What it means to me is that I don't care if you happen to be Jewish or Baptist or Catholic or Muslim, etc, etc. Worship as you see fit and I'll do the same. It should be like that but we know it isn't. Yes I was. They are all tongue-in-cheek remarks. If remarks from a Yankee fan is the only thing that entire region of the country had to worry about then they'd be very well off.

Of course Christians aren't completely innocent. You can go back in history and find some of them that have done some serious killing all in the name of God. And yes, not all Muslims are bad people. i never said that and not once have I ever written those words. If you want you can go search through some back pages in this thread about something I talked about back in February. Some guy in North Carolina shot to death a Muslim couple over what turned out to be a parking space dispute. Go read what I wrote. You may have known me for that period of time but the reason why you say I have strong beliefs and opinions about things is because of a thread like this. I wrote about New England and Boston a lot around here. They were a punching bag because of the Red Sox and a source of jokes. While I won't go as far as saying I like Red Sox fans I can honestly say I do not hate that region of the country as much as I have let on.

I thought that comment was just fine. I tried to put a little humor in the post while at the same time trying to make whoever read this stop and think and say to themselves you know what? This kid could end up doing just that. The way the world is now I am not really stretching the truth here all that much am I? Besides I owe Muslims absolutely nothing but the back of my hand. I realize that it's been a slow week for them and they haven't made the news by killing someone in some horrendous way but that doesn't mean you forget what they have done. Setting a pilot on fire while he was still alive? Can you imagine that? Cutting people's heads off? Not just Americans but Japanese too and some were women also. The Charlie Hebdo affair in France? I could go on but I don't feel like typing for the rest of the day. No apologies from me here DJ.

Jeferomer, Jed, que ustedes hacen un trabajo fantastico. Solo quiero que sepas esto y espero que he escrito esto correctamente tambien.

Updated to 9-27 ...The Mets wrapped up their first division yesterday since 2006 and they deserved it. Not that I'm a Mets fan by any means but to have them win it besides Washington was just fine with me just because I can't stand Bryce Harper. That "where's my ring?" quote is coming back to haunt him and it couldn't happen to anyone more deserving. ...I have hated every bit of change that they have done to the game of baseball. You name it and I am against it. The designated hitter, interleague play, "this one counts" for the All-Star game, expanded playoffs and instant replay. I can't stand any of them. Call me a conservative baseball traditionalist if you'd like. But the one I probably dislike most of all is the almost religious devotion every team has to the pitch count. Take last Monday night in Toronto for example. The Yankees had Adam Warren on an eighty-five pitch limit. The guy hasn't thrown eighty-five pitches in a month and they had a limit on him? Warren struggled in the first inning as he gave up three runs but then settled down until Joe Girardi yanked him with one out in the fourth inning. He had to use five pitchers to finish the game. I honestly think the fear of letting these pitchers go out and pitch leads to a lot of these injuries that they get. The Baltimore Orioles had four twenty-game winners on their pitching staff in the early 1970's. You'll never see that again. And it's not because pitchers were "better" back then or anything like that. The only difference is that during that era they let the pitchers pitch. Do you think that Earl Weaver ever went up to Jim Palmer and told him that because he's thrown seventy-nine pitches by the fourth inning he was going to take him out of the game? At the most Warren could have gone a few more innings. He would not have required assistance to return to the dugout at that time. ...Directions to Boston, please. Dept: The Detroit Tigers have sent home their closer Bruce Rondon for the remainder of the season for his "effort level." I've never heard this one before. It's a polite way of saying that this guy hasn't been trying and basically doesn't care if he is or not. There's only a week left in the regular season and they could have made him sit out in the bullpen until it was all over without ever having him take his jacket off but they wanted him gone so bad they told him to get out of town. When that happens you know you won't be a Tiger next year. Fortunately David Ortiz said he wanted to take an active role on who would be on next year's roster for the Red Sox and Rondon would be a perfect pick-up for them once Detroit throws him away along with the rest of the unsold hot dogs. Rondon's from Venezuela which is not too far from the Dominican Republic. And besides, he has the perfect attitude for Boston. Stay tuned. ...Bobby Valentine, a man who has made a career out of saying stupid things, said another one just the other day when he said that he thought PED's were "good for sports" because they let you see the best out of an athlete and that they will eventually be legal. No wonder why this guy was David Ortiz' favorite manager. ...Someone raised a good point last week about Bella Bond, the little girl who was found in a trash bag over the summer. The police artist that did the rendition of her did it so well that it was practically the spitting image of her. Which brought up this question? Why didn't any of the neighbors after they saw the little girl's face on TV each day call up and say they recognized her or at the very least looked kind of familiar to them? Say, doesn't that kid look a little like that little girl across the street? But this never happened. Even child services is getting part of the blame - and rightfully so. Little Bella was the subject of two prior child welfare investigations that in the end went nowhere but yet no one who worked there recognized the child. Or maybe because they knew they screwed up royally they didn't want to recognize her. The point is there is a lot more blame to go around here than on her drug addict mother and psycho boyfriend who insisted this kid was the devil and had to die. ...I pay attention to politics in passing. By that I mean I always have one eye on something else any time anything political is brought up. But last week a comment by a Republican candidate named Ben Carson actually made me stop keeping tabs of the baseball scores for a moment and take notice. Carson said that Islam is antithetical to the Constitution, and he doesn't believe that a Muslim should be elected president. Well thank you very much. If a Muslim was elected president the only places that would be safe from bomb attacks would be 7-11's because they're employed in every one of them from coast to coast. Well, you don't have to guess what happened after. Muslim civil rights leaders demanded an apology. How can he say such a thing? Easy, it's called the truth. You elect a Muslim as president you may as well sell real estate to ISIS here in the U.S. Ben Carson, whoever he is, just won himself a lot of support. ...A few days after Carson made these comments a twelve-year-old Muslim boy from Minnesota with the encouragement of his parents made a video telling Carson that his words inspired him to want to be the first Muslim president of the United States. Sure he will. He'll be singing a different tune in a few years as soon as he becomes a teenager and runs off to Syria to fight for ISIS. ...The police department of Childress, Texas, a small community of six thousand or so that is located at the southern edge of the Texas Panhandle has found itself under fire from some PC watchdogs because they placed large "In God We Trust" decals on its patrol vehicles. The reason why they did this was in response to recent violence against law enforcement officers. Naturally that is not a good enough reason for their detractors because they are saying that the decals on the patrol cars amount to an illegal government endorsement of religion. Never let it be said that the people who spend their time searching for new ways to be offended miss any opportunities to do just that. Nothing gets past them. It makes me wonder if they have an office somewhere staffed with volunteers who scour the internet headlines in search of things to kick up a fuss about? There is a huge difference between that police department down there stating their beliefs and forcing it on people. That's something that they've conveniently overlooked here. ...And isn't "In God We Trust" on all our currency? I bet that doesn't offend them when they have to go out and buy something. ...Pete Rose met with the commissioner of baseball last Friday to plead his case for reinstatement. The meeting took about two hours, which was not enough time for Rose to whitewash everything that he has done that lead him to be banned and during his time away from the game. When the meeting was over the only thing that was announced to everyone was that the commissioner would give his decision by the end of the calendar year and both parties have agreed to refrain from further comment on the matter. The latter is what is going to do in Rose before the former does because there is no way Rose can keep quiet about anything especially when he is told to. As many hits as Rose accumulated over his career it equals the amount of brain cells that he has. This should be the easiest decision Rob Manfred has had to make since he entered office. ...Well this is something you don't hear about every day. A woman gave birth to a baby boy at Petco Park in San Diego while game between the Padres and Giants was going on. If this kid ends up playing for the Padres in twenty years that would be a hell of a story. If by chance this same thing would have happened in Fenway Park the Red Sox would have tried to charge the baby admission. ...Welcome back Scorpion, Hawaii Five-O and all three NCIS shows. And that new show Limitless looks like a keeper too. Thank God for DVR's. ...David Ortiz filled out a questionnaire recently on Derek Jeter's Player's Tribune website and one of the questions he was asked was what his dream job would be if he wasn't a baseball player. His response? He wanted to be a porn star. That answer surprised me probably as much as his fans. I thought he'd say something like if he were not a ballplayer he would be able to devote all his time into his drug trafficking career. But porn star? Now because he said that the porn industry is suddenly going to be a respectful one in Boston? What do you want to do when you get out of high school Johnny? I want to be a porn star Mom and Dad. Oh yeah? That's fine. David Ortiz said he wanted to be one too so that's ok. Good luck! ...Actress Kim Cattrall made a very odd comment last week that I thought was kind of interesting. If you don't know who she was she was on HBO's Sex and the City. She said that even though she has not given birth she still considers herself to be a parent because she mentors young actors and actresses along with her nieces and nephews when they need advice or someone to talk to. Yeah ok, if you say so. And I consider myself to be a millionaire even though I don't have the money to back it up. ...R.I.P. Yogi Berra, who died late last Tuesday night. It wasn't surprising to me at all to read and hear so many good things about this man last week because as many people said, he was one of a kind. I've been to Cooperstown a few times in my life and each time I have visited the museum I would always stop by and read Berra's plaque. I never saw him play but thank God there were a lot of film clips of him that I watched over and over. How could someone be that successful as a bad-ball hitter? To try and imitate Yogi Berra would have been a mistake because he really was one of a kind. I first saw him as manager of the New York Mets and I was pulling for him to win the '73 World Series against Oakland. He almost made it as the Mets took Oakland to seven games. They weren't even supposed to win one. A lot of quotes and stories were told and re-told last week about him. Not to make fun but to show respect. One thing that never escaped me about any Berra quote was if you stopped to think about it they really made sense. When he said 'no one goes there anymore. It's too crowded,' he was talking about a restaurant that was hard to get reservations for because it was so popular that everyone wanted to go there. When he said 'it ain't over till it's over' it was self-explanatory. But he said it in such a simple and direct way that it became a battle cry for sports teams everywhere. I'll sign off this week with my two favorite Berra stories. A man was carrying out his grandfather clock that he just picked up from a clock repair store and while he was bringing the clock out to his car to bring home he accidentally bumped into Yogi, knocking him to the ground. Berra got up and growled at him, visibly annoyed. "Why can't you wear a watch like everyone else," he exclaimed. The Yankees had a rare off day in Philadelphia one time during a series with the Athletics and someone on the Yankees thought it would be a good idea to take anyone who wanted to go on a tour of the famous sites of the city. Quite a few Yankees signed up and they were taken to places like Carpenter's Hall, the Declaration House, where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell. Yogi was one of the Yankees that decided to go on this trip and for the entire trip he was very quiet but paid attention to everything that was said. Finally after the trip was over and the Yankees were being driven back to their hotel Berra turned to Phil Rizzuto, who was with him that day. "Hey Phil, when did all this take place?" he asked. R.I.P. to a great man.

Gee, thanks for all your help here. You failed to notice that this question was asked back in April and the problem was already solved.

Not a good day, obviously. One of my favorite Yankees.

I have to admit that I never even thought of this and it wouldn't surprise me to find out it was true.

Updated to 9-20 ...So much for being excited for week one of the NFL season. I had the Raiders game turned off before halftime even arrived and I didn't turn it back on for the rest of the day. Nothing seems to change. I've never seen one team drop so many balls that consistently over the years and this year should be more of the same. The only good thing? At least Derek Carr's injured throwing hand that knocked him out of the game against Cincinnati is not as serious as they thought and he should be able to play today against the Ravens. ...How's that saying go again? You can take the player out of Boston but you can't take the Boston out of the player? Well, something like that anyway. Jonathan Papelbon's last year as a member of the Red Sox was in 2011 but after listening to him viciously tear apart his ex-Philadelphia Phillies teammates last week during an interview it would have been understandable for anyone who doesn't follow roster moves as closely as most people to think he was back in Boston instead of Washington. That's how they do it in Beantown. It's always somebody else's fault. Everything's perfect when you are winning but when you're not you start to point fingers. Blame others but not yourselves. If that isn't the motto of the city of Boston it should be. Papelbon placed the blame for Philadelphia's recent struggles on the field on their front office all the way down to the bat boy. Maybe he can make a case for the front office where he can point out moves that they should have or should not have made but the bat boy? What did he do, forget to bow in front of Papelbon before he walked into the clubhouse each day? Well whatever it was Papelbon says the bat boy was part of the problem why the Phils were not winning. He learned well when he was in Boston. ...Checking in on old friends, Dept: A lot of times the Yankees are accused of giving up the wrong people in trades or not working hard enough to keep the players they have when they lose them to free agency. I am as guilty of this as anyone else is, probably more. So before the season winds down to a close I decided to look up some of the people we lost recently and after looking at what they have been doing I am glad they've done it someplace else instead of in the Bronx. Phil Hughes: After an impressive 16 -10, 3.52 ERA season that he had last year Hughes lately has been pitching as if he were suddenly back with the Yankees. He has allowed eighteen runs over his last 16 2/3 innings covering four starts and has lost his last three decisions. He's 10 -9 with a 4.58 ERA this year, something that shouldn't surprise anyone from New York. Joba Chamberlain: He's in Kansas City now and is along for the ride as the Royals prepare for their second straight season playing in October. Chamberlain won't be on the post season roster because the Royals are trying to win and they feel he can help a lot if he goes home to Nebraska and stays there. He's 0 - 2 this year with a 5.11 ERA with no saves. The Royals will probably end up releasing him just like the Tigers did. Shane Greene What the hell happened to this guy? He was one of the few bright spots in the Yankee rotation last year. Good young arm, not afraid of anything, just the kind of pitcher you want to see develop for your team. But the Yankees traded him and this year he has gone 4 - 8 with a 6.88 ERA. He must have hung around Joba Chamberlain too much when they were both on the Tigers. Lazy Robinson Cano: I couldn't help that. Every time I say Cano's name I first say the word lazy. It just fits. And people in Seattle are beginning to understand what Yankee fans have known for years. The only time Cano gets his uniform dirty is when it rains during the game. You can't help getting dirty then. He's hitting .279 with 16 home runs and 65 runs batted in. That's a steal for twenty-four million dollars a year. ...Cheers for Jered Weaver of the Angels for beaning Kyle Seager of the Mariners for not being ready to hit and constantly calling time. I never saw Bob Gibson in his prime but I would have paid good money to see Gibby deck this punk. ...Remember those two juvenile delinquents who used that referee as a tackling dummy right before a play during that high school football game in Texas earlier this month? They are in some pretty serious trouble now and when kids get in trouble they play the blame game and these guys are making sure everyone gets some except for themselves. First they are turning in their assistant coach because he was upset because the referee was making bad calls against their team and he was so mad about it that he made the remark that the ref should pay for his terrible officiating. Right, because in every football game from high school to the pros the officials have never blown a few calls. Only in this game because it was such a rarity. And what if the coach said the referee should pay? If he told them to jump in front of a train would they do it? And they went after the referee too. They made the guy sound like Archie Bunker with a whistle. He used the "N" word. He insulted their Latino heritage. And what's worse is that he called two holding penalties that took ten points off the board. He had to go down. Besides being kicked off the team and thrown out of school these two gridiron soldiers are facing a criminal investigation. But that's still some time down the road. That gives them plenty of time to think of more people to blame. ...The NFL reinstated the two criminals that the Patriots employed to deflate those footballs back in January because what else would you expect them to do? I am confident that those two guys will never be involved in any more wrong doings from here on out because the Pats probably have other people already prepared to take their place. Now what's next? The loss of a first-round draft pick in 2016, a fourth-rounder in 2017 and a one million dollar fine, all sanctions imposed on them by the NFL will disappear soon. That will be about as easy to predict as snow in January. ...I'd like to give my take on the Republican debate that was on last Wednesday night but I didn't watch it. I care about that almost as much as I care about the well-being and happiness of the people from Boston. ...I kind of feel bad for that fourteen-year-old boy from Texas who was arrested last Monday because he brought in a digital clock that he made from a pencil case and when his teacher saw it she thought it looked like a bomb and that's when all hell broke loose. She called the police and they came and took the kid away in handcuffs. On the surface you may think that the teacher completely over-reacted here but this homemade clock had a lot of wires going in and out of it and it had the look of a bomb. To top it off this kid was a Muslim and if there's any group of people who know how to make a bomb out of anything it's Muslims. Yes, the kid didn't have a bomb, he shouldn't have been arrested or suspended from school for three days but I could understand why the teacher got so nervous that fast. Muslims are always going to be mistrusted in this country because of what they have done and what they are currently doing. That kid may be very intelligent and had no intention of causing any trouble but going to school with something that looks like an explosive was just asking for trouble. And that's what he got. ..One thing I noticed about Kim Davis, the Kentucky clerk who refused to issue same-sex marriage licenses when she was working was how much support she received when she was let out of jail. I could care less about same-sex marriages since I have no plans to be a part of one in this lifetime or the next but it is always nice to see people going against the heavy-handed control of the PC group, even if it is for this. ...Last week a couple in Missouri were having a meal in a restaurant when they noticed two other patrons at the table next to them with a boa constrictor. That right there would have been enough for me to have the waitress bag everything up and produce the check as quickly as possible because I would have been in my car before anyone knew where I went. But these people were braver than I was and they actually held their ground until the snake began to slither down into the booth behind the woman. That's when they notified the manager of the restaurant and when he asked the people about the snake they insisted the snake was a service animal for the man because he has depression and having the snake around him helps him. Of course it helps him. It makes people around him scatter and that alone cheers him up. And besides he said, the snake is a service animal and that means he gets to stay. Not so fast. The only animal that is a recognized service animal is a dog and nothing else but the restaurant owner was so concerned about violating anybody's rights, including the snake, that he allowed it to stay. You could almost see what was going through the guy's mind when he let it stay. He'd get his name plastered on CNN because they'd be calling him a racist towards reptiles. This reminds me of a time some years back when I was walking around the mall and I noticed some guy approaching me from the other direction with something wrapped around his neck. It was the middle of summer so I knew he couldn't be wearing a scarf. As he walked past me I saw that he had a snake around his neck and because of that everyone that was near him gave him plenty of distance. Whatever I was shopping for that day suddenly became unimportant because I did a quick U-turn and headed out to my car but not until I went up to the first security guard that I saw. I pointed out the guy, told him what was going on and what direction he was headed in. What did he do? He turned around and walked as quickly as he could in the other direction. ...Of all the things I wrote about this week this one is the toughest for me to get down. I don't have children of my own and I don't know if that makes me lucky or not. Lucky because I don't have to worry about my child being abducted or hurt or even killed. Or am I unlucky that I never had the joy of watching my kid grow up? I always wanted a little girl but it wasn't to be. The closest I got was with my niece, whom I spoiled since the day my sister brought her home from the hospital. So when I read about a little baby girl found dead in a trash bag on a Boston Harbor island back in June my heart just broke. Who the *&%$ would do something like that? And how do you sleep at night? There was a composite sketch made of her and when I saw that I just lost it. She had chubby little cheeks and brown eyes, eyes that seemed to me so full of curiosity and wonder. This was a baby and someone put her in a garbage bag and dumped her like she was this week's garbage! The police got a tip like they somehow always seem to do in cases like this and the little girl's mother and her boyfriend were charged with her murder. Her name was Bella Bond. The word bella means beauty. And she was. She was almost three years old. She should have spent this summer swimming in pools and playing and eating ice cream. Instead she was found in a hefty bag on Deer Island in Winthrop, Massachusetts by a woman walking her dog. Sometimes you just can't hold back the tears.

What was the name of the template mcoll?

Not yet KC. Go in the shoutbox and scroll back to last night. This is something that shouldn't even be talked about. It is what I call common sense and yes, many times it is not used in here.

What??? You got to have a talk with her. And if she still insists tell her to drive it there herself. (I can say this because I am far away from you and she can't hit me.)

Sure, I'll send it in parts.

Damn, you're right. Ok, this is what I want. A brand new 3D television. A new Keurig coffee machine. And why not, a new PS4 and MLB the Show. I'll try it out. Let's get cracking! You're in luck, I got one in my garage that I am not using anymore.

Come on in, the water's fine. Got any garbage?

Oh no, not at all. I didn't want to come across like that. I have no faith in the average 17 year old or anyone near that age group, younger or older. I figure they should be more internet savvy because that is all they have known their entire life. I am very grateful that I am not in school these days because of what goes on there. Selfies and instagram and Facebook is all they know or care about. And I should say to be clear that not every kid is like that. It just seems that way because there are so many that are.

I think at the age of 17 you would have a lot more common sense, especially kids now who have literally been brought up with the internet. They know what you should and should not do when you are online. I really think this guy is trying to pull something here. What that is, I don't know. Maybe we all should get together and mail him our garbage? All around the world from Asia to Australia to Canada and Europe. All being sent to *redacted* Disclaimer: I do not encourage or condone this idea. It was a post to get a laugh in here. I am not responsible for anyone taking this idea and running with it. -The law offices of Y4L, Branches in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Honolulu.

I looked up the address on Google maps that this Rhodes scholar provided and it appears to be some townhouses. Across the street at 1925 Wilmette is an American Legion hall. So, this is a legitimate address. I have been here for eleven years and I have to honestly tell you that this is the stupidest post I have ever seen. You first want someone to give away their copy of this game to you. You got a lot of nerve asking that. Then you provide your home address, which just shows how smart you really are. Honestly the stupidest thing I have ever read in here. By the way welcome to Mvpmods. You are not kidding. *&$^ him. It's not like anyone told him to. You can't cure stupid.

By any chance do you recall a long gone website called Emux.com? I got a lot of Roms there. It's been gone for over ten years now.