Yankee4Life

That is one hell of a program. I've had that for years now.

Updated to 8-9 ...I know that the Blue Jays are one of the Yankees rivals but I was happy to see them knock around the Royals last weekend in Toronto. Kansas City gets one little whiff of success and it goes right to their heads. ...I can not stand buying software when they only give you a license that is only good for one year. ...Pete Rose spent Wednesday in Beverly Hills taking a lie-detector test as another attempt to show new commissioner Rob Manfred that he is on the up-and-up and deserves a second chance. The results of the test were not made public as they were only mailed to Manfred but a source says that Rose got so mixed up with some of the questions that he broke the machine. ...It must be nice being Kylie Jenner because all I ever see her do is stand in front of a mirror and take pictures of herself. ...I almost feel bad for the Miami Marlins players because it seems every off season Jeffery Loria builds that team up only to tear it apart. And I am sure to this day people in Montreal would like to kill him. ...All of a sudden the Yankees forgot how to hit just when they needed it the most. Pitiful. ...And honestly, how stupid are the Yankees? Wait, don't tell me. I already know. Every time they trade with the Seattle Mariners they always seem to get a Seattle player with a hidden injury and they keep coming back for more. Three years ago they got Michael Pineda who soon needed shoulder surgery and was lost to them for quite some time. He's just now beginning to prove his worth to the team although we won't be seeing him until September. Seems as if he still can't escape his Mariner habits of getting hurt for long periods of time. Five years ago they screwed the Yankees over on the Cliff Lee trade because of ridiculous demands and now Dustin Ackley. This stupid SOB plays a few games for the Yankees and then as you can guess he went on the disabled list for a herniated disk last Tuesday. That is something that takes its time to heal and the Mariners must be having a good laugh right now knowing they got rid of this waste. ...When a little nine-year-old boy who had such a love for baseball and had so much joy being a team's batboy dies only because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time it kind of makes you question the meaning of things at times. There are so many bad people still walking around today doing terrible things to other people that it makes you wonder why this little boy is not with us any longer. When things like this happen religious leaders are compelled to tell us that there is a "purpose" in what happened. God's will. Sometimes I think they really believe this and sometimes I think they are just saying it. God's will is something that takes place that you do not quite understand and we are not smart enough to understand why. That really sums up what happened last Sunday. All I do understand is that a little kid who loved this game is gone now and the player that accidentally hit him in the head with his bat is never going to be the same. ...This is good. Now an NFL supervisor of officials has come out and said that footballs are subject to losing air because they're "man-made products." How do you like that? It took them awhile but the Patriots finally found someone they could bribe just so they could plant doubt in people's minds or at least all the people that do not live in Boston. They've already believed Tom Brady's story anyway. In a way you really got to give them credit. When Boston cheats they go all the way and hold nothing back. ...Go West Young Man, Dept: A five-hundred-sixty pound man is so determined to lose weight that he is attempting to bike across the United States in order to do it. I give the guy credit right there for even attempting this. He started his trip in Massachusetts and so far has made it to Rhode Island, ninety miles from where his trip began but he has been stuck there since last week because of a bent rim on his bike. I wonder how that happened? A bicycle company sponsoring this guy has been busy making a new bike for him that can withstand his weight. My guess is that it will be so heavy that if anyone tries to steal it they had better bring help. The only advice I would give this guy is to try and avoid Pennsylvania at all costs. There's a lot of hills in that state. I didn't like driving there let alone riding a bike there. Best of luck! ...How stupid are people, really? Just last month a guy blew his head off by lighting a firework off it and another guy jumped into a lake that was full of alligators and before he knew what happened he became a quick snack. Now a man from San Diego was recently released from the hospital because he was trying to take a selfie with a rattlesnake. Well, at the time it seemed like a good idea to him. The bite from the rattler was nothing compared to the bite he received when he was given his hospital bill when he was discharged. For his up close and personal moment with the snake he was charged over $153,000 in services from the hospital including over $83,000 for a pharmacy charge because his treatment depleted the anti-venom supplies at two local hospitals. His insurance covered nothing from his hospital visit and he has to foot this bill all out of his own pocket. I bet when he first got a look at that bill he probably wished he were an illegal alien. ...Cops in Minnesota pulled over a kid who was driving his truck with three people soaking in a makeshift pool in the bed of his pickup. Damn, give the kid a break. How long does summer last in Minnesota, two weeks? Let them enjoy themselves. Swimming in a pool does make a lot more sense in every way possible and it's safer than driving around in a mobile pool but knowing how to have fun in the sun is not something that people from that part of the country are known for. Now if you ask them about how to ice fish they'll know what to do. ...I would like to commend those three Chechen women for conning $3,300 from Islamic State recruiters although I don't know how wise it really was to do something like that. It's like poking a hornet's nest with a stick. What they did was illegal and they are currently under investigation for fraud because the ISIS boys were expecting them to travel from Chechnya to Syria to help make dinner for them. I don't know if they will actually be charged for anything because I wouldn't expect ISIS to send someone to collect on the money they were scammed out of although if I were them I'd do the sensible thing and move out of town. ...There's competition in everything, Dept: Believe it or not there is a bar in Huntley, Illinois that has been having a Turkey Testicle Festival for thirty-two years now that is held in November right around Thanksgiving. Apparently their is a lot more testicles to go around because now another town is having their own Testicle Festival. Try to say that without laughing. The town organizers in East Dundee are having it on the exact same day as the old pros in Huntley are having theirs and are calling it the same thing. One of the officials in East Dundee said their event is going to be "family-oriented." I'd like to see how the hell they are going to pull that off. Come on honey, tell the kids to get their coats on. We're going to go eat some turkey balls. As if Thanksgiving wasn't bad enough for the turkey population. ...I read last week that the Dodgers are paying 87.5 million dollars to players who are not even playing for them this year. That is more money than the Marlins, Astros, Rays, A's and Indians were paying on their season-opening rosters back in April. And people gave the Yankees crap all these years. ...Law enforcement officials in Massachusetts are trying a new approach to the war on drugs as they are attempting to reach out to drug dealers who want to eliminate their competition. On their Facebook page they have set up a a fill-in-the-blank form that provides them the person's name, address, phone number, what drugs they're selling and where they are being sold. There's other information that they are asking too like when is the best time to catch them at their job and what is their favorite corner to work out of. I'm not sure if this is going to work but if it does everybody in Boston will be turning each other in. ...Maybe you'd want to blame it on the summer time. Kids have all this free time and they tend to get bored and they have to go find things to do. Or maybe that had nothing to do with it and this kid was simply sick in the head. I can't think of any other excuse for an eleven-year-old Detroit boy to swipe a loaded pistol from his father's closet and sneak it outside. If you haven't heard what happened you can probably figure out the rest. He got the gun and aimed it at small boy and shot him to death maliciously and with intent. This toddler had no chance as he was dead on arrival when he got to the hospital. The kid has been charged with manslaughter and because of his age he probably won't see the inside of a jail until he gets older and shoots a few more people. People are giving the boy's father a lot of grief for having the gun hidden in his closet but they forget this is Detroit and one can assume the man has to use it three or four times a week just so he can go outside to see if the mail came. Yeah, he should have had it locked up but no one made that kid go there to get it. ...That was one hell of a move by the Cleveland Indians to get rid of a serviceable Michael Bourn and a useless Nick Swisher to the Atlanta Braves. They'll never miss Swisher. The guy is so bad that the Yankees were not even willing to re-sign him after the 2012 season and as long as you have a pulse those guys will re-sign anybody. Swisher's true worth was mugging for the cameras and giving good interviews but as far as driving in runs, hitting for average and carrying his weight in the post-season the guy had no value at all. ...What the hell is going on with the violence in our movie theaters now? Not too long ago all I had to worry about when I went there was how much they raised the price of popcorn to and if people around me would keep quiet when the movie was being played. How did these places become an attraction for the crazies in this country? I can envision people patting you down before you walk in the movies in the future and that's not going to help me at all because in the winter time when I go to see a movie I run to Walgreens first because they sell movie candy for less there. They give me a pat-down they're going to find my stash.

I agree. The problem is when you quote and include the pictures in your quote. Just take them out.

Updated to 8-2 ...Positively shocking. That was my reaction to what the Yankees did last week during trade time. I realize that these guys are linked to every player that's on the market every year but for them not to bite and get a starting pitcher? Ivan Nova's got a tired arm or some kind of crap going on with him, Michael Pineda's on the fifteen-day disabled list but that doesn't seem to be serious and C.C. Sabathia is still going out there every fifth day and making the opposing teams very happy by doing so. I expected the Yankees to get a pitcher but I was glad that they didn't. Texas gave Philadelphia a bag of balls for Cole Hamels but if the Yankees had been able to pry him away from the Phillies they would have had to give up some real players. It would have been interesting to see David Price in a Yankee uniform and now all I can hope for is that the players that Detroit got from Toronto never pan out and it takes them twenty years to play .500 baseball again. Johnny Cueto and Adrolis Chapman were too rich for the Yankees but then the Reds managed to turn a blind eye when the Royals inquired about Cueto. But they could not go the entire week without making some kind of deal and that's probably why they acquired Dustin Ackley from Seattle. The guy's never done anything in the past so there is every reason to believe he will continue doing the same thing. I'm happy for what Brian Cashman did last week because when other teams come to trade with the Yankees they demand more than what they ask for from anyone else in baseball. We've got some pretty good prospects down in the minors. I'd rather see them play in New York than someplace else. ...I was just thinking the other day, whatever happened to that speed-up-the-game talk that they were talking about over spring training? Has anyone watched David Ortiz at the plate lately? He steps out so much and for so long that he has time to go make a sandwich between pitches. ...Last week an alligator was discovered by grounds crew workers and players in the visitor's dugout of the Port Charlotte Stone Crabs, the class A Advanced team of the Tampa Bay Rays. They had no idea how long the ten-foot gator got into the stadium or into the dugout. It was probably hungry and was waiting for the concession stands to open. Now here's the funny part to me. The team called someone from the county to get the alligator out of the dugout and members of the grounds crew drove it to the pond behind the parking lot and let it go. You don't think he's going to find his way back in the stadium at some point? Maybe next time you won't spot him although if they had let it stay right where it was there would be a brand new meaning to home field advantage. ...The Detroit chapter of the Satanic Temple unveiled a bronze Baphomet sculpture at an industrial building near the Detroit River last week before hundreds of supporters last week. The nine-foot-tall monument weighing one ton was hidden away until the last moment because of fears that pesky Christians would find out where the ceremony was going to be held at and ruin their fun. These people picked the right city for revealing this statue because Detroit has already gone to hell anyway. It kind of makes me wonder what else they could do to involve themselves in the Detroit community even more after this... 1. The Satanic Temple could sponsor Little League teams and supply all red uniforms with the devil looking terrifying and breathing fire. 2. Scholarships will be given out to the kid who commits the most heinous crime during the school year. 3. They could rent ad space at all the major sports venues in Detroit telling everyone to come on down and have a look around and bring a friend. 4. To make some extra cash they could rent out their venue to the Muslims because that's the only religion that gets what Satanism is all about. 5. They could hire Iron Maiden to make a special recording of Shout at the Devil and have them rename it Shout at a Christian. ...I can see one of these atrocities being erected in Boston. Talk about being made for each other. ...Speaking of Boston, they were the United States' selection in the bidding process for the 2014 Summer Olympics but Boston mayor Marty Walsh withdrew their bid because he expressed concerns about a provision which requires the host city to cover any cost overruns and if that happened it could be financially burdensome to Boston for years to come. And he has a hell of a point. Beijing, China had to fork over forty-three billion in 2008 and in Sochi, Russia for the Winter Games it cost them a cool fifty-one billion last year. So while Mr. Walsh may not be mayor in nine years he did everyone there and whomever the mayor is in 2024 a huge favor. ...It took five weeks for him to mull over it but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has upheld the four-game suspension that Tom Brady received for his part in deflating the footballs against the Colts in the AFC Championship game back in January. The thing that Goodell could not get past or even remotely understand is why Brady had to destroy his cell phone as soon as he found out that the investigator on this case wanted to see it. That made him look just as guilty as someone who runs to the bathroom and starts flushing stuff down the toilet because they saw D.E.A. people running up his driveway preparing to knock the front door in. So because of that four games he was given and four games he is going to get. The only people who are going to believe him from now on will be the people living in the greater Boston area and to say that those people are a terrible judge of character would be an understatement. ...If a ballplayer could get an Emmy I'd give one to Shane Victorino, formally of the Red Sox and now of the Angels. He cried at just the right moments and said just the right things as he was heading west out of Boston last week. Thanking those fans who have been on his case since the 2014 season? And he said it so sincerely too. Straight to Hollywood as soon as his career is done. This guy's got potential. ...Who wants to bet that the patients from that Minnesota dentist that shot that lion are going to go elsewhere from now on? ...A man in Milwaukee shot and injured a pit bull last Thursday because he mistook it for a lion that people have reported seeing lately around the city. I can understand his concerns because I wouldn't want to see any lion if it wasn't in its cage but how the hell could you not tell the difference between a dog and a lion? This is what happens when idiots own guns. ...What the hell was it with the lions last week? ...Although I have not seen it around here yet funeral parlors across America are branching out to host weddings, receptions, community banquets and even proms during the times when their main business slows down a bit. Part of the reason for that is the cost of a funeral has been skyrocketing and more people are choosing to be cremated instead of buried. I can see why they are trying to expand their business a little but I don't know if I would have been comfortable getting married in a funeral home although after you get married you are dead anyways so you may as well do it in the right place. ...I guarantee you no woman will like that joke. ...After watching that video about the Florida gun owner who declared his gun supply shop a "Muslim-free zone" I take back a lot of the things that I have said about Florida in the past. Or maybe the guy is not even from Florida which is probably the case. The guy decided to do this because of what happened in Chattanooga and predictably there are complaints about this especially from an organization called CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations) who are complaining that Muslims are being targeted here because of who they are. No kidding? The guy's going straight to the source. And it's about time. ...There was a theft of twenty-eight thousand pounds of packaged nuts recently in suburban Detroit and while they steal everything there this one was kind of odd. The police even had a little fun with it as they posted a mug shot of a squirrel on their Facebook page as a possible culprit. Maybe so, but my money is on Miley Cyrus. With the set of choppers she has I wouldn't put this past her. ...There is a Michigan AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) basketball team named the Motor City Muslims. No kidding. Not even I could come up with something like that. It's a team made up of all young Muslim players and while they may not have a lot of what it takes to be a successful basketball team, height, ball control, defense, etc. other teams are wary to play against them because they don't know what will happen to them after the game if they win. Each cheerleader for the Motor City Muslims wields her own machete and the fans are armed with rocks to shoot at the opponents at a moments notice. With support like that they'll never lose a game. ...I have an even better reason not to shell out money to get HBO now because the network just signed Bill Simmons to do a weekly talk show beginning in October. It's supposed to feature stories and guests from across the world of sports but the way this guy is it means the sports world from one end of Boston to the other. If it's not the four major teams from that city then he won't have anything to do with it. The next time I want to hear about this guy is when HBO sends him packing. ...It seems that the people who are in the Jurassic Park movies never seem to learn because they keep on making new dinosaurs and then act surprised when one of them turns around and steps on them or eats them whole because in 2018 a sequel to Jurassic World is coming out and all I can say about that is thank God for that. Because if they are dumb enough to keep on making a Tyrannosaurus Rex and believe they can control it like it was a dog, then I'll be glad to watch them run around and scream. ...Have you heard about what San Francisco has done? They have a problem with public urination in some places so now they have nine public walls covered with a repellant paint that makes pee spray back on the person's shoes and pants. I hope this doesn't catch on to other cities though. Can you imagine if Boston did this? More than half of the city would be walking around smelling like a dirty restroom. ...Taking it a step farther how did they know when that paint was ready to be used? What the hell did they do, get some volunteers and ask them to go over there and piss on the wall and see what happens? ...What a shock it was to find out that Roddy Piper died last Friday in his sleep from a heart attack. He was from the era when I actually watched wrestling every week when the USA Network used to air WWF news and matches on Monday nights. Piper was hilarious as the bad guy and I did my best never to miss a segment of Piper's Pit. The best one was when he smashed a coconut over the head of crybaby Jimmy Snuka and smeared a banana in his face. Sounds like fun? I got the video link for you. Piper was a wrestling genius. And he's gone too soon. R.I.P. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKXpSyjfIik God dammit the video does not show up. WHAT THE HELL???

I would just love to see them back in the series.

What do you care? You the forum police now?

Check the standings.

But you should not be penalized for what you say in private and especially when you do not know you are being recorded. Even though we all can say yeah, that wasn't the smartest thing to say or even the right thing to say it was said behind closed doors. That guy that owned the Clippers was in the same situation with that gold digger he was seeing. I've said worse about those killers and will continue to. I have no respect for people who cut off their prisoners heads or set people on fire.

He's on vacation.

Look good though.

The next time you score 47 runs do it against the Red Sox.

I never considered that one simply because I never heard of it. If I get a chance I will watch it. Yes, this will be hard for him to come back from. No doubt. The thing is we don't know how he really feels. You want to know how someone really feels about things you get to know them. People now are easily offended and quick to jump on anyone. Let's speculate here for a minute, shall we? Pretend that someone has a device that can access all the conversations you have had in let's say the past ten years. These would be private ones in your home, over friends and families houses and in public. Sounds crazy but let's just say for the sake of argument that it can be done. Would you be 100% secure in the knowledge that you've never said anything that would make the PC people frown down at you? You couldn't, I couldn't and no one can. Hell, I write in this thread every week and my goal is to try to keep things interesting so people read each week. What if I were a public figure? The things I say about Muslims would get a lot of fingers wagging at me. Hogan said all that stuff. It wasn't meant for anyone to hear. He should not be penalized like he is. You my friend got lucky. I am glad you had a good time there. It really is a wonderful place to visit.

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.

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.

Damn I missed this guy.

Kumala, Pehea `oe?

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.

Right now I am working on Total Classics 2015.

I was wondering that myself.

No argument here Sabugo.

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.

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.

Agreed.

This won't happen because too many people will cry about it but take the voting completely away from the fans. Set it up so the players, managers and coaches are allowed to decide the starting lineup. Let the AL and NL manager from the World Series the year before pick the reserves. I don't vote myself. I don't think I am qualified to pick a starting nine because I would be more biased than I am fair. I have never once voted for a Red Sox player. Never. I never even voted for the straight Yankee ticket because there was no way I was casting a ballot for people like Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano. Most people vote not for the guy that deserves it -God forbid- but for the guy they are familiar with. Remember a few years back in 2013 Derek Jeter was the leading vote-getter for awhile for AL shortstops even though he didn't play in a game? All his name had to do was show up on the ballot and people voted for him. Thankfully J.J. Hardy ended up the starter. If the players would have voted that year Jeter would not have received one vote because they are smart enough to realize that you have to play to be considered for the All-Star Game and that's something the fans have proven they are clueless about. Not all fans are like this but the majority of them are. Take it completely out of their hands.