Minor League Catcher Gets Owned...
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Why I Love YouTube
This blogger was having some fun on YouTube, and wanted to share these videos.
"Korean Baseball Fight" Ummm, what?
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Walking for a Cause
Every once in a great while, you stumble upon a story that is so powerful it makes you want to be a better person.
Rory Fanning is walking. He has been almost every day since Sept. 17. But this isn't an ordinary stroll in the park. Fanning has a mission: to walk across the U.S. in memory of his friend, Pat Tillman, the Arizona State and Arizona Cardinals star who was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 by friendly fire.
Fanning, a former Army Ranger, began his journey in Virginia Beach, Va. towards his destination--Huntington Beach, Ca.--averaging 20-miles per day.
Along the way, Fanning stopped in Tempe, Arizona to send off the runners in the fifth-annual 'Pat's Run', a 4.2 mile course which starts outside the Sun Devil Stadium and finishes on the 42-yard-line (Tillman wore number 42 at Arizona State).
Fanning's goal is to raise $3.6 million, the contract amount that Tillman turned down to become an Army Ranger, for the Tillman foundation, while raising awareness about Tillman's story.
*Photo: Mark Wilson/Roswell Daily Record
Friday, April 17, 2009
Mellencamp Knockout
Another Mellencamp may be singing sweet songs in the future. But of a different sort.
Hud Mellencamp, the 14-year-old son of John Cougar Mellencamp, got a little recognition for his 4-1 decision over Cody Bennett of Kentucky's Southpaw Boxing Club to win the 132-pound senior title in the Indiana Golden Gloves boxing competition yesterday.
Hud and nine other open-division winners will represent Indiana on May 4-10 at the national Golden Gloves tournament in Salt Lake City.
In the mean time, let us reflect on some of John Cougar Mellencamp's great hits:
*photo: Boston.com
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
ARE YOU REEEEADDDDYYYY???
UFC 97 is upon us. I know I'm excited to go to B-dubs Saturday night and (if I can get a table) cheer on Chuck Liddell and watch Anderson Silva defend his title....
That being said, if you want a good breakdown of the fights and the contenders, check out ESPN's overview.
Obama's Chicago 2016 Pitch
This is a video from April 6 (before the IOC visited Chicago to determine whether or not it would be suitable to host the 2016 Olympics).
Video Highlights/Obama's Big Points:
*Chicago as "most American of American cities."
*Cultural richness
*A city of historical perseverence (rebuilding after the Great Fire, home to railroads, the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, and Millennium Park)
*Lives and breathes ideal of excellence
*Legendary sports figures, venues and fans
*Renown Architecture
*Chicago universities unlocking mysteries of science, medicine, and history
*Mayor Daley's pledge to make the city 'green'
*One of the great cities of the world
*"Diversity, Perseverence, Excellence"
I'd be interested to see what you guys think of President Obama's pitch. This man is such a great speaker in my opinion, and the speech really evokes American values and ties in multiculturalism. What I think is lacking (which may have been addressed elsewhere) is the financial plan. Can the government and other agencies offering to pay for this REALLY afford it?
*Photo: ricelakelibrary.org
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Funny and/or Stupid Quotes from Athletes
On a whim, I made the executive decision to google "funny quotes by athletes." Should I be studying for my Computer Literacy test, which starts in 58 minutes? I think so. But this just seems to be the thing to do at the moment.
So, without further adieu; here are some of the best that I found:
"Left hand, right hand, it doesn't matter. I'm amphibious." -Charles Shackleford
"Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." -Joe Theismann
"Pro football is like nuclear warfare. There are no winners, only survivors." -Frank Gifford
"They shouldn't throw at me. I'm the father of five or six kids." -Tito Fuentes after being hit by a pitch
"I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid." -Terry Bradshaw
"These people haven't seen the last of my face. If I go down, I'm going down standing up." -Chuck Person
And I couldn't forget the great SHAQ:
"I made a 1600 minus 800 minus 200 on the SAT, so I'm very intelligent when I speak."
Sources: Bleacher Report
Photo: http://uselessplace.com/
In-Class Column Exercise: The Inevitability of the Baseball's 1994 Work Stoppage
What do you do in the case of an age-old argument where neither side has ever been willing to truly compromise and an entire industry is on the verge of a flop?
You stop working. At least that's what happened in baseball in 1994.
When the big-shot players and uber rich club owners hang everyone else out to dry, the bomb will drop. This is why the work stoppage of 1994 in baseball was inevitable.
Baseball was in a deadly state; small club owners weren't breaking even, while big club owners continued to rake in the cash. There was little authority, seeing as there was no commissioner and plans to find a new head-honcho had been dragging along. Free-agent players were asking for more and more money that many clubs didn't have, and yet they continued to be signed.
The game was no longer about the fans or the love. It was about the green goblin: cold, hard cash. Even Hall-of-Fame players noticed.
"For all the players have gained, the changes took something away from baseball," former Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts said, noting the union's role in the downfall.
The tug-of-war between small club owners and big club owners over revenue-sharing was a major issue that led to the stoppage. The small-city teams were aching for money, many having to cut talent in order to keep from selling teams to bigger cities. The San Diego Padres traded starting-pitcher Craig Lefferts and other key (but expensive) players from its roster in order to keep from going bankrupt or losing its team to another city.
But big-city teams didn't want to share the wealth. The owners didn't think it would be fair to give a large sum of money to a small-city team when they were the ones drawing in the cash.
Salary-capping was another contested issue. The players wouldn't have been happy with having their salaries cut because they didn't fit the budget, but the owners would have recieved some economic security by guaranteeing that the players salaries didn't grow exponentially every year.
One might argue that an essential break-down of the MLB's economic system would have stopped the stoppage. If everyone could have given a little, the game could have continued. If the big teams gave a percentage of revenues to small teams... If the players salaries were lowered, but they were offered other benefits and guarantees...
But there was a history behind the system. It had been broken in the past, and nobody was willing to budge.
Lords of the Realm author John Helyar put it well by comparing the players to the pigs from Animal Farm. They had been struggling to reform a system that kept them down, as the players had in the earlier days when Marvin Miller struggled with the owners to raise the minimum salary for players. But after a while, the players let it get to their heads and wanted more more more money, and pretty soon they appeared as greedy and indistinguishable from the Lords as the pigs were from the humans they struggled against. And what pig would want to go back to living in a mud-filled pen?
The small teams couldn't fiscally afford decent players, but without decent players, they couldn't make money. The big teams wouldn't give them money because they didn't think they deserved it, some arguing that certain small-teams had been poorly managed.
At the same time, there was noone to rule over the league. After Fay Vincent resigned as commissioner in 1992, no commissioner had been instated. It was in a state of political chaos, as Henry J. Aaron of the Economic Study Committee put it in his report in 1992.
So what else could baseball have done to prevent the stoppage besides going back in time to repair its torn roots?
Everything looks different in hindsight.
You stop working. At least that's what happened in baseball in 1994.
When the big-shot players and uber rich club owners hang everyone else out to dry, the bomb will drop. This is why the work stoppage of 1994 in baseball was inevitable.
Baseball was in a deadly state; small club owners weren't breaking even, while big club owners continued to rake in the cash. There was little authority, seeing as there was no commissioner and plans to find a new head-honcho had been dragging along. Free-agent players were asking for more and more money that many clubs didn't have, and yet they continued to be signed.
The game was no longer about the fans or the love. It was about the green goblin: cold, hard cash. Even Hall-of-Fame players noticed.
"For all the players have gained, the changes took something away from baseball," former Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts said, noting the union's role in the downfall.
The tug-of-war between small club owners and big club owners over revenue-sharing was a major issue that led to the stoppage. The small-city teams were aching for money, many having to cut talent in order to keep from selling teams to bigger cities. The San Diego Padres traded starting-pitcher Craig Lefferts and other key (but expensive) players from its roster in order to keep from going bankrupt or losing its team to another city.
But big-city teams didn't want to share the wealth. The owners didn't think it would be fair to give a large sum of money to a small-city team when they were the ones drawing in the cash.
Salary-capping was another contested issue. The players wouldn't have been happy with having their salaries cut because they didn't fit the budget, but the owners would have recieved some economic security by guaranteeing that the players salaries didn't grow exponentially every year.
One might argue that an essential break-down of the MLB's economic system would have stopped the stoppage. If everyone could have given a little, the game could have continued. If the big teams gave a percentage of revenues to small teams... If the players salaries were lowered, but they were offered other benefits and guarantees...
But there was a history behind the system. It had been broken in the past, and nobody was willing to budge.
Lords of the Realm author John Helyar put it well by comparing the players to the pigs from Animal Farm. They had been struggling to reform a system that kept them down, as the players had in the earlier days when Marvin Miller struggled with the owners to raise the minimum salary for players. But after a while, the players let it get to their heads and wanted more more more money, and pretty soon they appeared as greedy and indistinguishable from the Lords as the pigs were from the humans they struggled against. And what pig would want to go back to living in a mud-filled pen?
The small teams couldn't fiscally afford decent players, but without decent players, they couldn't make money. The big teams wouldn't give them money because they didn't think they deserved it, some arguing that certain small-teams had been poorly managed.
At the same time, there was noone to rule over the league. After Fay Vincent resigned as commissioner in 1992, no commissioner had been instated. It was in a state of political chaos, as Henry J. Aaron of the Economic Study Committee put it in his report in 1992.
So what else could baseball have done to prevent the stoppage besides going back in time to repair its torn roots?
Everything looks different in hindsight.
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