News - The depressing round-up of today's news stories

A daily dose of doom and gloom to get us in the mood for the Memorial Day weekend. So much is happening right now it’s tough to keep track of who’s batting, let alone who is on deck:

As I type this posting, former DoJ official Monica Goodling is testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee. The AP has reported this morning that Goodling broke down into tears in the office of a colleague shortly after the brouhaha over the fired US Attorneys broke, saying, "All I ever wanted to do was serve this president and this administration and this department," My only thoughts over this revelation are that it’s a sweet sentiment to have, hon, but the DoJ is a traditionally non-political and independent department from the White House. Goodling can squirt tears over her unrequited adoration of the President but I wonder how she would feel knowing that her slavish devotion to a man and not her nation or her sworn oath has damaged this country. I think Monica needs to spend more time at match.com than trying to please a sociopathic President.

The Democrats not only failed in their attempt to end the war in Iraq, they also rolled over and allowed the President to see their soft underbelly too. No word on whether or not he scratched their bellies. The President has infamously stated that being the President is hard work, now the Democratic leadership has proven to me once again that doing the only moral thing they can do as representatives of our nation, end the war in Iraq, is hard work if you aren’t willing to take responsibility. Don't go on Meet the Press and tell us we need a bipartisan plan, damnit we need to end that miserable lie and failure that is Iraq and try to pump the water out of this sinking ship called America. If you folks in DC don't have a pair give me a call. I'll loan my cajones out to you for a few weeks as long as they don't come back shaven or pierced.

In what can only be described as an overt threat, nine warships, including two aircraft carriers, entered the Persian Gulf yesterday for “training” in the full light of day. We now have three aircraft carriers in that sandy bottom bathtub known as the Persian Gulf. Transiting the Straits of Hormuz is tricky and dangerous to begin with. Masking operational intentions and maintaining OpSec has always looked at a nighttime transit of the Strait as a necessity. Doing so in broad daylight, in formation and with such sensitive ships as carriers is a pure double-dog dare you move by this administration and a terrifying scenario waiting to happen. The stakes are far too high and tensions too strained for this sort of bullshit bravado by the sociopaths of Washington. This story actually gives me chills and it worries me a great deal.

Gas is..well..gas is like a Mylar “Happy Birthday” balloon that has broken loose and is soaring higher and higher.

The melamine and cyanuric acid story is off the radar. Apparently Americans think it’s okay and safe, otherwise, why would we be able to eat off Melamine plates if it wasn’t safe?

Barry Bonds is 10 dingers away from tying the Home Run record set by the great and beloved Henry Aaron. Aaron, I believe can be argued, was the greatest all-around pure hitter the sport has ever seen. This paper argues that it’s ok to root for Bonds, after all, he is innocent until proven guilty. I say bullshit because we the fans aren’t a sequestered jury and that defense just doesn't cut the mustard unless you are a lawyer or on trial. Bonds did the juice and we all know it so let's stop making excuses for him and call the damn strikes and balls like we see them. This pussy-footing around the issue insults the intelligence of even the casual fan and is a slap in the face for lifelong fans who have followed the sport for decades. Henry Aaron is still a great leader and has been a true gem as a pillar of the community in Atlanta since retiring from the sport. I’d wash Mr. Aaron’s car and not ask for a tip or recognbition. I wouldn’t let Bonds pump my gas.

Michael Vick has morphed from miracle working hero of Atlanta football into the worst kind of trash imaginable. If only Steve Bartkowski were 25 again.

On a positive note, Memorial Day weekend is upon us and the two greatest race spectacles known to man will be run, the Grand Prix of Monaco and the Indianapolis 500. My weekend will be spent at home this year, saving gas, watching the two races, doing damage to my “to be read” stack of books and posting to the blog. Hurry up and get here Friday!

Sports - Jackie Robinson

(Picture from achievement.org)

Today marks the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first game as a Brooklyn Dodger. The civil rights implications of this event are massive but the effect this had on Baseball history and sports at large are possibly greater.

Before that day in 1947 the only sports outlet where black men were able to compete on equal footing with white men was in the boxing ring. The great Joe Louis, the major black athlete of the 30's and 40's along with Jesse Owens following his spectacular Olympic appearance, were the two black athletes who had large groups of white fans. In the African-American community both men were heroes.

When Robinson crossed the color boundary it ushered in a new era of sports heroes and changed the way all sports were played in the most fundamental ways. Records were smashed and an entire cult of personality eventually grew around the men who followed Robinson.

Just 22 years, the length of one generation, after Robinson's first game in Dodger blue, the sports heroes and legends of color were astounding. Future Hall of Famers Ernie Banks, Willie Mays, and Bob Gibson dominated the game. Joe Morgan, Ferguson Jenkins, Rod Carew and Lou Brock, all four of them future HoFers, were at the beginning of their careers. Stars of the day were Willie McCovey (future HoF), Willie Stargell (Future HoFer), Donn Clendenon, Frank Robinson (future HoF) and Mike Cuellar (1969 Cy Young Award winner). In Atlanta, the "City too busy to hate", a stoic Henry Aaron was quietly blasting line drive home runs with the sheer power of his wrists alone, on his way to becoming the man who is arguably the greatest and most fully rounded hitter the sport has, and may ever see.

I'm of a fortunate age for a baseball fan and amateur baseball historian. I saw two of the greatest players of the 50's era in their final years (Aaron and Mays) during the early 70's, all the while watching the business and style of the game transition into the early 80's and a completely different sport. I was able to understand at that time that a fundamental change was sweeping through the sport, a change which started in the early 70's and was inspired by events of the late 40's and early 50's.

Another sweeping change has been blowing through the dugouts for a little more than a decade, the era of the chemically enhanced player. With Barry Bonds on the verge of breaking Aaron's home run record, and Aaron showing that the legendary stoicism of his playing days is still with him, because that really is who he is by ignoring the hoopla; I look at how the sport has truly changed since Robinson's name being called on the Ebbets Field PA on this date 60 years ago. Robinson would be proud of Aaron's example and not impressed by the direction baseball has taken in the last decade.

A ripple on the pond was cast on this day 60 years ago. The pond has completely changed it's shape since that day. This is Jackie Robinson's true legacy, the man who started a sea change in baseball. Baseball has lost the path that Robinson steered toward and the loss is ours.

News - Fat man crushes lawyer, lawyer lives

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-lifall0412,0,400189.story?coll=ny-leadworldnews-headlines&track=mostemailedlink

Excerpt from the article:

Ellen Massey always counted being struck by a baseball or a bat at Shea Stadium among the hazards of being a Mets fan, but she never thought a 300-pound man would come crashing down the stands -- and onto her.That's what the Manhattan resident, 58, said happened on Monday, Opening Day at Shea.

Shortly after the seventh-inning stretch, she said, a man dressed in a green Army-type jacket tumbled from higher seats and onto her back, knocking the wind out of her and, ultimately, causing serious injury."I only know he came flying," Massey, 58, said Wednesday from her bed in Jacobi Medical Center in the Bronx. "I was literally not able to breathe for about half-a-minute or so. The first thing I was aware of was not being able to breathe, and then when I was able to breathe I was aware of the pain in my lower back."

Massey, who is a lawyer, is scheduled for surgery on a vertebra on Friday. After she was injured, she said, she was attended to by two emergency medical technicians who were in the stands watching the game, and then by Shea's own medics, who stabilized her head and neck area and took her to a local hospital.

Comment - I hope the fat dude was able to get that awful lawyer smell out of his clothes. Poor fella, it's bad enough to fall down stadium steps, imagine if you touched a lawyer to boot. I wonder if he spilled his beer when he fell?

Plans for a quiet, relaxing weekend

My biggest task this weekend will be making a grocery store trip to play E-coli roulette with my health, all in the name of nourishment and that full tummy feeling. Other than that I'm planning one of those lovely weekends to lounge around in my boxer shorts and old ratty bathrobe and watch the tube. Unless a wild hair gets the best of me or something brews up in the national news, the posts this weekend will be on the fluffy side, save for one.

Bill Maher is on tonight, Formula 1 qualifying is tomorrow morning in Bahrain, and the Thrashers play game 2 against the Rangers tomorrow afternoon. Go Blueland! Sunday morning will be the Formula 1 race (Go Kimi, Fernando, Lewis and Kubica!) and Sunday night is episode 2, season 6B of The Sopranos. I'm going to sprout roots on the sofa and drink copious pots of tea.

One thing to also look forward to on Sunday is that it marks the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson's first Major League game. I'll post some comments about this on Sunday along with some thoughts about Henry Aaron, my greatest childhood sports hero and one of my true adult heroes.