Did Josh Hamilton Kill A Man?

One of the saddest things I have ever seen at a baseball game occurred during yesterday's Rangers-A's game.
After a foul ball was hit down the left field line, Josh Hamilton tossed the ball up into the stands.
39-year-old Shannon Stone reached for the ball and fell over the railing.



He landed headfirst on the concrete below after a 20-foot fall and died before he even got to the hospital.
If this could get even worse, Stone was at the game with his 6-year-old son. Presumably the little guy with the glove and red shirt and red hat you see in the video.

What Do You Give Me For? Jake Shields & John Hensley

What do you give me for UFC welterweight Jake Shields and John Hensley, better known as Matt McNamara from Nip/Tuck?

Seven Years Squared

Happy 7th birthday to the much-maligned but also much-loved Diesel.
He is far from the perfect dog, but he is perfect for us.
Through him I have become a lover of all animals and a much more compassionate loving person. I regret that we no longer have the long walks we had before the kids intervened but to me there are few things more special than when it's just me and him loping along side by side.

Song of the Week

"Collard Greens and Cornbread" - Fantasia
I love cornbread. I love Fantasia. I love songs that sample "Your Precious Love." When she sang this on Idol we scanned through it and didn't even pay attention. So now I'm making up for it.

Does the New York Times Hate the Fourth of July?

The Obama Re-Election leaflet once known as the New York Times published a stunning op-ed this week. It was written by Brian Palmer and it questions many of the most sacred traditions of July 4th. It literally goes after apple pie.
In "Fire Up the Grill, Not The Atmosphere" Palmer says cooking is a big culprit of greenhouse gas emissions.

Here's Palmers take on three July Fourth barbecue staples:

Hamburgers and hot dogs: Beef is an environmental disaster, no matter how you cook it

Potato salad: sometimes appetizing but always wasteful. An overwhelming majority of the energy in boiling goes into heating the water rather than cooking the potatoes.
Direct-heat methods are more efficient and usually tastier. Cubed and pan-fried potatoes take just 10 minutes to cook and require less than one-third the energy of boiling.

Apple pie: Skip the pie. Baking is so energy profligate...

Is there anything more American than apple pie? Is there anything less American than saying skip the pie?

Basically this all comes do to your perception of the author's intent. Palmer does offer several disclaimers about not wanting everyone to give up meat, or use the microwave, which is the most energy-efficient. But I doubt his sincerity. To me, this doesn't come off as "tips to have a greener barbecue" it comes off as a lecture on what we are doing wrong and why we as Americans are gluttonous pigs who are ruining the environment and getting obese all at the same time.


Moving on, the July 3rd issue of the New York Times featured a front page story about how states are incrasingly allowing the sale of fireworks because of the revenue it brings in. New York, Massachusetts, Delaware and New Jersey are the last four holdouts. Residents of those states travel across state lines to purchase fireworks.

The article was accompanied by a picture of a New Jersey resident, Reggie Noble, loading up on fireworks in Easton, Pennsylvania.



“My father took me to buy fireworks, and now I’m doing it for my kids,” said Reggie Noble, who was filling his cart with fireworks at the Phantom Fireworks in Easton one day this week. Mr. Noble, 41, who is better known as the rap artist Redman, said it did not make much sense that he cannot buy fireworks in New Jersey, where he lives.

“I can see the dangers they are trying to prevent, but it’s still happening,” he said. “I vote that they should lift it up.”

Cars 2 Review

Chase's review of Cars 2:
"There were a lot of bad guys. And they shooted at the racecars. And they crashed. And the ambulance had to come fix them."

My review of Cars 2:
Chase is right. There were a lot of bad guys in this movie. Unlike the first one which had a cute plot with no antagonists, this one wasn't as good. It played out like a bad spy movie.
Mater was mistaken for a spy. And by the time everyone figured out what was going on it was too late, Mater had to act like a spy. There were car chases (of course), there was shooting and there were ridiculous plot leaps that made no sense, just to keep the action going.
That said, I liked the movie, it was cute, it was fun and there were enough jokes designed to keep the adults interested, that went right over the kids' heads, like Mater on a bidet.
There was also the hidden environmental agenda storyline targeting the parents.
The whole idea of the World Grand Prix was started by a billionaire who had discovered a new clean fuel which would eliminate the need for oil. But he turned out to be an evil oil baron who was sabotaging the racecars so the world would reject clean fuel forever.

But the important thing was Chase liked it, though he did get a little bored in the middle. He loved the car racing scenes, they were loud (at one point he covered his ears), colorful and he knew a lot of the racecars because we bought him the toys before the movie. I think it would have been good in 3-D (though we thought we should ease into that) because the cars drove towards the front of the screen, there was water splashing and guns firing.



Chase also loved the experience. He loved the popcorn. He loved the cushy seat. He loved the big screen. Hopefully he will always remember his first movie.

Baseball is Poop - We're Halfway There

Most teams have played between 80 and 82 games so it's time for me to be lazy and mathematically unsound and simply double players' stats to get their projections over a full season.
I'll also be giving out mid-season awards, since Master Bates and I have been debating it recently.

Yankee Stadium is a Joke
They really need to move back the right field wall in Yankee Stadium this offseason. The new ballpark is an embarrassment. If they haven't done so already the sabremetricians need to come up with separate ballpark adjustments to gauge the impact of this bandbox has on left-handed hitters. Mark Teixeira has 25 (16 home, but I couldn't find his lefty/righty split at Yankee Stadium specifically), Curtis Granderson 21 (12 home). I guess those splits aren't incredibly out-of-whack but Tex is not even having a good season. and he's still on pace to hit 50.

Joey Bats
Jose Bautista has really slowed down. His OPS is down to only 1147. Yes, I said only facetiously. No he couldn't have kept up a 1300 pace but 1100 is usually good enough to lead the majors. Good things RBI is an overrated statistic, he's on pace to barely reach 100.

A Change of Scenery Did Him Good
Adrian Gonzalez is enjoying his trip from the outhouse to the penthouse. He is putting up sick numbers roughly .350/.400/.600 in the slash numbers. He's 9 homers behind Teixeira but if he hits 30 homers, drives in 140 and hits even .330, that would be an incredible season -- for the traditional stats.

Triple Your Pleasure
Jose Reyes is almost a lock to break the modern-day (post-war) record for triples in a season. Curtis Granderson hit 23 in 2007, and Reyes already has 15 at the halfway mark.

Let's Check the Pitchers
Right now we have three guys with 11 wins, who could easily get to 20: Justin Verlander, CC Sabathia and Jair Jurrjens. At 10 you have Jon Lester, but also Roy Halladay and Kevin Correia. It's also amazing that at this point in the season you still have two starters with sub-2 ERAs, Jered Weaver and Jurrjens.

And the Closers
It is simply amazing that Mariano Rivera is still closing games (on pace for 42 save, slightly more than his age) at this stage in his career, with a 1.69 ERA. The other among the leaders in saves do surprise me though. You've got Joel Hanrahan, Craig Kimbrel, Brandon League and Serigo Santos all on pace for at least 35.

Now onto the Awards
NL MVP: Prince Fielder
Matt Kemp might be having the best season statistically in the NL, but his team stinks so he's out. Jose Reyes is carrying the Mets right now, he is always on base and he is the catalyst for a surprisingly good offense (4th in the NL in runs scored). I just don't think a leadoff hitter can quite measure up to a slugging middle of the order guy. Especially when the slugger is on base more frequently than the leadoff hitter. The other mitigating factor for Reyes might be that Ryan Braun, is nearly as good as Fielder. Still, I would go with Prince.

AL MVP: Adrian Gonzalez
You can't really make an argument for anyone else. Bautista, Miguel Cabrera and Paul Konerko are all having good seasons, but no one is pounding the ball the way Gonzalez is or producing runs the way he is.

NL Cy Young: Jair Jurrjens
I obviously love the fact that Halladay has 5 complete games, and Cliff Lee has 4 shuouts, compared to Jurrjens's 2 and 1, but if a guy has half a run lead in ERA and is still not the Cy Young, what the hell would he have to do. That said, there is a strong possibility Jurrjens will fall off in the second half. His BABIP is .257, compared to a more normal .303 for Halladay. And his FIP is 3.07 compared to 2.40 for Halladay and 2.55 for Lee. That tells me Jurrjens is getting the benefit of good fielding and balls hit right at his fielders. Some of that is skill, but some of that is luck as well, very often fleeting.

AL Cy Young: Justin Verlander
This is very close between Verlander and Jered Weaver. Weaver is better in ERA (1.97 to 2.32) but everything else is very close. Weaver has 3 CG and 2 SHO, Verlander has 4 and 2. Walks are almost identical, Verlander has more strikeouts. My perception of how they are doing tilts it to Verlander. Weaver started off incredibly well, then lost 4 starts in a row. Verlander has had a no-hitter, a near no-hitter and some other dominating performances. One note: Verlander has a .222 BABIP. And he strikes out of a ton of guys. So even when they are making contact, it's not going for hits. Let's see if that keeps up.

Two Celebrities, One Block

I saw Bobby Ojeda parking his car at the same garage I use. At first I thought it was Paul Reiser. But then the parking attendant called him Bobby. He was talking to the attendant when I started to drive, and I almost hit him because he started walking without looking.

Then, when I drove around the corner I saw a very tall man getting into a taxi. A taxi stopped at a red light in a center lane, not the far left lane. That is an unadvisable practice. But I guess no one is going run over former Knick great and U.S. Senator, Bill Bradley.

Song of the Week

"Love You Like I Did" - 112
Still one of my favorite groups ever. This one never got released as a single and it was one of the rare songs Slim didn't sing lead. I believe this is Daron.

Julian is Going to Have a Low Daytime Batting Average

Texas Rangers outfielder Josh Hamilton was asked the explain the wide disparity between his performance during the day (399 OPS) and at night (1070 OPS). Basically he is Mickey Mantle at night, and Mickey Mouse when the sun is out.
And that may be the reason. Hamilton says because he has blue eyes, he has a harder time seeing during the day.



Of course a few other ballplayers with blue eyes backed him up, including Jason Bay who is actually doing better during the day (695 vs. 590 at night). But ESPN actually found an optometrist to back him up:

Dr. Richard L. Ison says, "Because of the lack of pigment in lighter color eyes -- like blue or green eyes as opposed to brown -- you get a lot more unwanted light and that can create glare problems".
Ison said the phenomenon is called intraocular light scatter, meaning the light scatters as it enters, producing a focal point that isn't as good.

For his career, Hamilton has a 723 OPS during the day and 977 at night. Now I suppose there are other reasons that could explain this though we don't think he is out at night boozing and chasing skirts like he used to be. So if it's not lack of sleep, it could be randomness, some guys just do better during the day, others do better at night. Or maybe there really is something to this eye thing.

If so we're going to have to get Julian to wear eye black at an early age.

Do Bumblebees Have Sex?

I think I saw two bumblebees fucking. They landed on a leaf on a bush where I was standing and they were not disturbed at all by my flash photography.




The internet says they do in fact mate, and they usually mate with the male hanging on to the queen's back.

Jennie Finch is Biting My Style

Jennie Finch, the lovely softballer player, and her husband, minor league pitcher Casey Daigle welcomed a new baby into the world on June 19th.
Their first child is named Ace, fitting for two pitchers.



The new child, Diesel. Diesel Dean Daigle. And the little kid is pretty cute. Let's just hope he doesn't grow up to scream his head off every time a squirrel goes by.

Story suggested by BC

You Never Forget Your First Time

The first movie I ever saw in the theater was "E.T." I don't remember anything about the movie except that I fell asleep.
My second (presumably) movie in the theater was two years later. I saw "The Natural." I loved it, it's my favorite movie ever. I even remember specifics about the movie-going experience including the guy who said "I've seen Kingman hit some shots, but nothing like that."

My first baseball game was also in 1982. Mike Scott pitched, the Mets won. But I don't really remember it.
A couple years later I would have vivid recollections of games. I even remember having tickets in the middle of August, presumably around Mama Poop's birthday and being worried the 1985 players strike would like to the cancellation of the game.

Note: the strike only wiped out two games (they were rescheduled). I even remember Papa Poop remarking that we didn't miss anything because both of the postponed games would have been on Sportschannel which we didn't have at the time.

With Chase, while we had the opportunity (as opposed to my parents who had me third and had no choice but to drag me along to these things) I wanted to hold off these special experiences as long as possible, so he would remember them forever.

We have somehow convinced him that you have to be 5 to go to a baseball game. And I do intend to take him on his 5th birthday (or thereabouts) and get a picture of his face the first time he sees the green grass and all the seats at CitiField.

But as far as the movie thing goes, the dam has broken. Cars 2 is coming out on Friday, June 24th. And we are taking him on Sunday at noon. And leaving Julian with BC and LCC.

Chase has probably watched 100 movies in his life, Madagascar once, Evan Almighty once (he still grabs a stick and yells "get in the ark now") and Cars 98 times.

His favorite song is "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts because it's in "Movie Cars" as Chase sometimes calls it.

Combine the fact that every character in "Cars" is a car, toy cars are so cheap ($5), we (and especially grandma) love to spoil him, the marketing geniuses at Disney are evil (we have a toy of Hank Haulsum who doesn't even have a speaking part in the first movie, he's just drinking motor oil at Flo's Cafe) and Chase is absolutely obsessed with the movie, we have so many toy cars our house looks like a miniature version of an athlete's garage on "Cribs."

We have 10 different Lightning McQueens ("why does Grandma always call him Steve?"), 6 different Cars that change color when you make them hot or cold, and 7 or 8 different Maters including a Dr. Mater and El Materdor.



Those last two come from "Mater's Tall Tales" which was a series of short films (4 to 6 minutes) they released during the 5 year break between movies. They were actually quite clever. Because they were only a few minutes long they got in a lot of funny jokes in a short time. One of our favorites was "Monster Truck Mater" where Mater and Lightning McQueen (Frightening McMean) become pro wrestlers and compete against the likes of I-Screamer (evil ice cream truck) and Patty O'Concrete (evil Irish cement mixer). We of course bought both of those villains. What else do you give a half-Irish boy on St. Patrick's Day if not Patty O'Concrete?

But the genius of the marketing people at Disney doesn't end with toys. The promotional tie-ins for this movie are incredible. Band-aids, Cheez-its (with a character imprinted on each cracker), macaroni and cheese (macaronis in the shape of Mater and McQueen), juice boxes, yogurt, tissues even a commercial for State Farm.



The plot of Cars 2 seems to revolve around McQueen going overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix (with stops in Italy, Japan and London). While in London, in addition to meeting The Queen and Prince Wheeliam, Mater gets mistaken for a spy.

I hope, for the sake of Mater's biggest fan, it is a movie experience he will never forget.

Song of the Week

"Hold Me (remix)" Brian McKnight featuring Kobe Bryant
Yes, that Kobe Bryant. This is a fantastic song and even Kobe's verse isn't bad.
If Billy and I shared one brain (I know, tough hypothetical to imagine) this would be one of our 5 favorite songs ever.

Chase's Underwhelming Reaction to Something I Thought Was Really Cool

I have met many celebrities in my career, most of them didn't even register with me as anything more than a smile and a good to meet you. There were a few I wanted to get a picture with (Uncle Mick Foley, Jonathan Duhamel and Jon Bones Jones).

But never have I been more insistent on meeting a celebrity, tried harder to do it, and had a more unusual request than when I recently met Larry the Cable Guy.

For those of you without children, please understand that LTCG (nee Daniel Whitney) is the voice of Mater in "Cars" and the forthcoming sequel "Cars 2."

Chase absolutely loves Mater and is so excited to see the new movie (I will elaborate in a future post) that I just had to get him to record a brief message on my blackberry.

I had all my minions following his every move throughout the building but my schedule and his just didn't work out and I thought I had missed him. As luck would have it I was walking right past where he was, so I waited around and much to the dismay of his PR person, I accosted him and he complied with my request.

He couldn't have been a nicer guy to everyone, not just me. And his message was pretty awesome, even though Chase didn't react with the amazement I expected.

From Shaggy to This

I was almost sure I had posted this video years ago, but apparently I never did.
It's a now famous clip of Casey Kasem freaking out.



So many great lines in this one:

"He was a little dog named Snuggles."

"Is Don on the phone?"

"What happened to the pictures I was supposed to see this week?"

"I gotta talk about a fuckin dog dying."

Sad to think the man who once lent his voice the loveable laid-back stoner Shaggy eventually turned into a ranting, raving lunatic.

Happy Birthday Poop

You constantly recognize everyone's birthday in this forum so I thought I owed you one. You may not be the easiest little brother on the planet, but I wouldn't trade you for too many others.

In recognition of Paul's 33 years on the planet, if every reader could post a favorite Poop birthday memory or some other funny story about him that would be great.

Happy Birthday baby bro.

And happy half birthday to my oldest daughter. She has amazed me every day for the past six and a half years and has taught me much more than I can ever teach her. Happy 1/2 Birthday munchkin face.

Happy Birthday Damino

A very happy birthday to Damino. Quite unusual to still know, 33 years later, another person who was born on the same day, in the same hospital.
Unfortunately we don't have any pictures of us together then, now or any time in between.

You Can't Say I Never Listened

The cemetery is a popular place. People are dying to get in there.

If Papa Poop taught me anything, that is it.

Happy Fathers' Day to mine and all the other dads out there.

This is Not a Joke

The other night while driving to work at 3:30 AM I was traveling in the center lane on Route 4. A car zips past me in the left lane. I was doing low 60s, I estimate this car was doing at least 80.
I saw it was a cop car and wondered where it was going that fast. And I then surmised if there had been a real emergency it would have had its lights on.
I was able to follow its tail lights, since no one else was on the road and saw it pull into its final destination: Dunkin Donuts.
What a cliche.