True geek alert #199: If you type Mark McGwire into your Google search, this is what shows up…
I think we’re going to be able to add ‘Mark McGwire and crying’ real soon.
At the moment, when you type Mark Mcgwire cr…Creatine is prompted before crying; I searched for Mark Mcgwire on Google, ask me anything.
The payoff to all this nonsense…hilarity.
I bet you thought that was going to be all legitimate, what with the AP chyron in there, right? Wrong again. To make up for it with something informative on the matter, check out SportsRadioInterviews.com’s post of Dave Henderson’s, former Mcgwire teammate with the A’s, interview today with ESPN 101 in St Louis:
At the time of me scribing this piece of inconsequence, incarcerated Boston Red Sox fan Randy Aaron Baker is preparing for his temporary release from Van Buren County Jail so that he can attend today Sox game against the Royals in Kansas City.
Randy Aaron Barker is serving a 10-day jail sentence for interference with official acts and violation of a protective order. He is also a big fan of the Boston Red Sox.
According to the Ottumwa Courier story, Barker’s attorney, Margaret E. King, Barker petitioned the court to allow him to attend the Red Sox game in Kansas City with his father and brother. They have had long-term plans to attend, King told Magistrate Judge Benny Waggoner.
Baker is set to return late tonight or tomorrow to the clink – whenever, right? What’s an “official act” anyway?
There’s a word in the quote that seems both appropriate, yet glaringly absurd. Petition. As in, some judge spent the time to hear a petition for a short time criminal to go to a baseball game – and a meaningless one at that. The lawyering time would have been better spent coming up with some sort of fining scale to be levied against people who buy tickets to Royals games in September.
Just goes to show you, for every Midwest magistrate being run roughshod by unbridled serial killers acting out of boredom, there’s lawmen who have too much time on their hands.
Baseball Fan Released From Jail To See Game (KCCI.com)
Leading up to this past weekend’s inception of the 2009-10 NFL season, I polled the sports blogosphere on What’s the Greatest Sports Day of the Year. Thought we’d get a top-10 out of it, but it turns out everybody sort of likes the same days with a few wild cards thrown in. (Actually, just The Indy 500 sort of puzzles me.)
Therefore, here’s my highly arbitrary Top-5 based on the sports blog intelligentsia’s feedback.
Don’t forget to vote at the bottom…
NFL Opening Sunday
Hanging out in a bar or ensconced on a couch with onion dip for 8-12 hours on a Sunday watching pro football is a truly iconic American experience. We wait all Summer for that experience, the whole time left to believe that sort of behavior is inappropriate and lethargic. Then, on a faithful Sunday in September – no matter what level of balmy Indian Summer weather we’re having – all your dreams come true, sloth. And, it’s not just one day, but the start of 5+ months of Sundays like this.
Here is Adam Best’s (Fansided.com) take on NFL opening day…
Not only is the NFL the professional sports league with the best product, it’s the sports league with the best presentation. After waiting for over half a year for the real thing, you get a taste of actual NFL regular season action on opening Thursday. That just wets your appetite for the 13 games on the Sunday slate. From tailgating to fantasy football, there isn’t a sports day that offers this much from start to finish. Christmas in September. Watching the Red Zone Channel for almost 7 hours before you switch over to NBC for the encore, and ESPN and the NFLN for the nightcap recap. From 8 AM until Midnight it’s all NFL. You can’t get non-stop action and highlights like that anywhere else.
The Kentucky Derby
I’ll take the sights at the local OTB on the day of the Kentucky Derby over any exploding fireworks spectacular. If they put an OTB there, even Mayberry would look like public squalor on Derby day. Utterly, fantastic.
But, to quote something The Cincinnati Kid Steve McQueen might have said – it’s not just the gambling, it’s also the drinking. You can muddle fruit everyday of the year, and it’ll never taste as well muddled as in a julep on Derby Day.
Also, you can wear a seersucker suit or a hat shaped like an extra large Triple Meat Italiano from Pizza Hut every day of the year, and people will always look at you with vague condescension, but at least on Derby Day they’ll have formulated an explanation as to why you’re dressed like a doofus.
The NBA Draft
I got more responses that read I know it sounds crazy, but I really enjoy the NBA Draft. Why so ashamed?
Two rounds, five minutes a pick (two minutes in the second round even), and all the wardrobe audacity that you could ask for in under three hours. I don’t think ESPN could get a more efficient display of unintentional comedy if they got Keyshawn, Kruk and Lou Holtz to tri-anchor SportsCenter live from Pamplona at the Running of the Bulls.
Opening Day
Answer: The first day when teams play each other in this sport is commonly referred to as Opening Day.
What is baseball, Alex. This would be a $200 dollar question in Jeopardy round. Under the category: Sports, amateur hour.
There’s a reason it’s Opening Day, and not Opening Sunday in the norms of society. And, the explanation might be that this is actually the greatest sports day of the year.
Hope springs eternal. Dads with their sons playing hookie from school and work, your first smells of the fresh cut infield and outfield grass, grilled ballpark franks, batting practice and ice cold beer…and then you go home that night to watch march madness…perfection.
The first or second day of the NCAA Tournament:
I used to work with a guy who took Thursday and Friday of the NCAA tournament off every year, and went to Vegas with his buddies for the first round of the tournament. In a world where most of us lose vacation time do to sinister company policies, he’s an inspiration.
Interchangeably known as the least productive day of the corporate year, sports fans might actually be at their best and brightest these two days. There are 13 games on NFL Opening Sunday, and due to mitigating circumstances (spreads, fantasy players, food comas) you’re bound to let the outcome of one or two slip until Sport Center, Monday morning. Also, due to occurrences like Opening Day: Kansas City at Baltimore, you’re likely to not care about the full MLB slate on April 1. 32 teams play on each of the first two days of the tournament, and you will know the fate of every single one (and you won’t need to reference a fistful of sports book tickets to conjure up this knowledge).
Hit the poll to vote for the greatest sports day out of these five, and check out some other bloggers’ takes below…
1. Super Bowl Sunday
2. Opening Day Baseball
3. Game 7 ( MLB or NBA )
4. NFL Championship Sunday NFC AFC
5. The Big Dance Day 1
6. The Big Dance Final 4
7. The Big Dance Sweet 16
8. First Saturday of NCAA Football
The best sports day of the year for me is New Year’s day. I love college football and having it to watch from 11:00 in the morning until after midnight engrooses me every single year. The first two days of the NCAA Basketball Tourney run a close second, and baseball opening day is third.
This is going to sound ridiculous, but one of my favorite days has always been the NBA All-Star game day/weekend. My birthday always happens to fall on that same weekend so I get to celebrate my bday along with my favorite sport’s all-star festivities.
I haven’t spoken to him yet, but my grandfather – a half-the-year Florida resident and man who has no less than nine sets of lawn darts in his garage – is surely offended by this.
Actually, playing catch at a public park or beach in Clearwater has been banned for a number of years (and yet, the ban on burmese pythons is still under consideration), and now, lawmakers are trying to change it back. As it stands now:
“No person or persons shall engage in rough or potentially dangerous activity such as football, baseball, softball, horseshoes, tennis, volleyball, badminton, or any other organized activity involving thrown or otherwise propelled objects such as balls, stones, arrows, javelins, shuttlecocks, Frisbees, model aircraft or roller skates on any public bathing beach or park property except in areas set aside for that purpose.”
To be fair, it would have been have unjust to only ban bow and arrow.
H/T to Popehat.com, who points out that since they passed this law, badminton-related deaths have dropped dramatically.
Before we give the Giants too much guff, I think we owe them a little deeper analysis on this. For one thing, Anchor Steam (a San Fran local sold at the park) is legit. And also, I don’t really buy this report.
First off, the beer figures have a footnote attached to them that reads: Team restructured seating categories or made retroactive changes to 2008 prices. Some of the 2008 numbers used do not match up with previously reported figures.
Anyone?
What I can tell you is that the Mets’ price figure that says you pay $5.00 for a 12 oz. is, well, a sick joke (because i’d love to get my hands on a $5 beer at a Mets game). I’ve been to Citi Field five times during the 2009 campaign, and I’ve purchased beer in every possible manner, minus the ritzy V.I.P. bar, which looks like a suite at The Palms resort and casino – I doubt this is where they are hiding the $5 special. I’d wager that Yankee stadium attendees would take similar offense to the assertion that they’re paying $6 for a 12 oz.
I’d say the average Mets beer at Citi floats you about $7. This includes the 16 oz. pounders of Bud and Bud Light, and the wide array of microbrews sold in 12 oz. cans. The 12 oz. domestics you can get up in the stands run $6. If that mumbo jumbo from above is supposed to translate to mean we’re looking at 2008 prices, then it bares noting that actually the prices at Citi Field are on average lower this year than at Shea in 2008 ($7.50 for those 12 oz. Buds). So don’t feel too bad for yourselves, Giants fans, because something is absent here with the numbers.
The Diamondbacks came in with the low number at $4.00 for their beer served in metric 14 oz. cups.
Some Staten Island kid tried to James Brown Super Bad-it into second and his mom is $125,000 fatter in the wallet because of it.
In 2004, Martin Gonzalez, 12 at the time, sustained torn ligaments in the knee sliding into second base in a Little League game. Martin needed two surgeries to repair the injury. His mom filed a lawsuit against the league and Little League Baseball Inc., alleging that her son was not taught the proper technique.
Now, five years later – family waited three to file the lawsuit – Little League Baseball has to fork over $125K to his kook of a mom.
Makes me yearn for simpler time of youth sports. I’m pretty sure you could run through the catcher in my Little League day. Everyone got hurt, no one sued, big league chew was legal.
In a Baltimore Sun article published today where he awkwardly calls former-MLB characters like Bobby Bonilla and David Wells – Mister, Baltimore Oriole Hall-of-Famer Brady Anderson expressed his discontent with Sports Illustrated naming Orioles owner Peter Angelos as The Worst Owner in Baseball.
I find it laughable that someone who has achieved the type of success that enables one to purchase a Major League Baseball team can be casually dismissed by many as a “meddler.” I have never understood this complaint of meddling; he owns the team. Indeed, this idea runs counter to the way that just about every other business in the world is run. I am certain many people would find it odd if their bosses sat by passively and idly as they ran the business anyway they chose (Viewpoint: Angelos doesn’t deserve the bad rap).
Besides meddling, SI most scathingly cites Angelos firing of Davey Johnson (who Anderson says resigned) and the Orioles lack of a post-season appearance the last 11 years as reasons for appointing Angelos as the heaviest head that wears the crown.
Giving the player prospective, Anderson calls Angelos “a compassionate, loyal man who truly cares about the Orioles, the fans, and the people of Baltimore.” He talks about how Angelos would visit his ex-teammate Eric Davis in the hospital and watch Oriole away games with him while he was getting treated for colon cancer. He also hopes that someday the list will be rewritten and will name the best owners in baseball (which it actually does, those five owners have combined for 35 playoff appearance and 9 World Series titles) and we’ll find Angelos at the top of that list (err, .486 winning percentage? Slow down, Mr. 30 Stolen Base Man).
If it’ll make him feel better, blame Zach Greinke for Angelos’ dubious distinction. If not for the first half run by Kansas City this season, there is no doubt, no doubt that David Glass takes the title of Worst Owner. The stats from his tenure are truly offensive (.432 winning percentage, zero post season appearances, four 100 game losing seasons). Of course, the newly rejuvenated K.C. fans took issue with S.I. even having Glass on the short list – wow, you Royal fans have short memories.
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I’ll defend the paranoia of the Customs agents here. This does sound a wee bit sketch.
According to the AP, 1000 Obama bobbleheads have been held at a U.S. Customs and Border Protection warehouse since May 20. The dolls were en route to Charleston, West Virginia – home of Minor League baseball team the West Virginia Power, Single-A affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates who were planning to give them out at their game this Saturday. The Bobblehead is an Obama-likeness in his High School basketball uniform sporting the Punahou High blue and gold.
Power team spokesperson, Kristen Call, told the Associated Press it’s unlikely that the dolls will be released in time for the game, and the fans in attendance on Saturday will be given a voucher to receive their bobble head. While you wait for it to get mailed, I suggest you all open EBAY accounts in the meantime.
Saturday would have marked the first ever bobblehead night for the Power. It also probably marks the largest import operation of a Single-A baseball team not involving kraut for the concession stand.
Not saying we should start lighting these bobbles on fire and see if they blow, it’s just that we’re at Code Red here! (are we?)
