Here’s video of a remote-controlled airplane that somebody decided to fly around for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ game against the Arizona Diamondbacks last night, and this is the kind of thing that makes me wonder why LA has any professional sports teams at all. If you don’t want to watch the game…don’t go. But don’t walk in with an airplane under your shirt and then put on your own personal airshow. Of course now, we’ll never find out who our aspiring Amelia Earhart was, even though this mission ended much the same way…poorly.
I suspect authorities will blame a very short race of Muslim extremists for the incident. Maybe. via.
Distinguished gentleman reader Mark was good enough to send this in; there’s nothing like an Italian TV commercial for baseball’s world cup that compares an outdated national pastime to one of the greatest military gaffes of the 20th century.
But the invading Americans taught the locals baseball! So, Italian ad agency Link came up with this, uh, “men-in-uniform” parody of the day’s deadly doings. via.
Complaining about the media bestowing praises of “courage” and being a “warrior” while our country is at war has been overplayed. That said, this spot picked a topic too serious to turn on its ear for anyone to appreciate it. Surely, there are prudish PC types in Italian ad agencies that would have shot this idea down, yes? Too bad Kevin Youkilis wasn’t in this commercial. Or in that war, really. We could have used another guy to run 60 feet and then get totally owned.
One of the most ignorant and irritating aspects of the steroid discussion engulfing baseball is the presumption of innocence that still exists with regard to certain players. How a person that knows anything about baseball could say,”This player did steroids and cheated; and my favorite player would never do that.” This idiocy was exposed to some degree last week when Ortiz and Ramirez were both revealed to have tested positive in MLB’s 2003 PED audit. And yet that attitude still seems to exist, as presented in a reader submission to GameOn, posted yesterday (emphasis added):
If a player is injured, or is just a contact hitter, then that player does not receive the love that the power guys do. Take Ken Griffey Jr., for example. He has had a great career but during the years that he was injured, he was largely dismissed by fans. Griffey did not take steroids to get back into the lineup like he could have. Instead, he let his body heal naturally. via.
There are two types of players in baseball right now: those that have reportedly tested positive, and those that haven’t. There is no “clean” or “dirty,” because nobody knows who’s “clean.” There’s no point in outing anyone as a “cheater” if we don’t know who didn’t “cheat.” How can you chastise those that failed when (a) there’s still the equivalent of more than three entire teams’ worth of players that failed the 2003 test, and (b) you have absolutely no idea who those players are?
This whole witch hunt is the only thing keeping baseball in the national consciousness. It’s time to pull the plug.
Japanese scientists took a break from their usual routine of genetically engineering octopi with penis-tentacles to develop baseball-playing robots.
The pitching robot, with its three-fingered hand, can throw 90 percent of its pitches in the strike zone, won’t need any relief from the bullpen and never asks for a pay rise…. [it] can throw 40 kph (25mph) strikes.
Incredibly slow pitches thrown accurately? OH MY GOD, Jamie Moyer’s a robot!
The batting robot, which has a sensor to determine if pitches are strikes or balls, hits balls in the strike zone almost 100 percent of the time, doesn’t swing at pitches outside the strike zone, and is guaranteed to pass all drug tests.
I don’t like where this is going. The Yankees are going to shell out for all the good Japanese robots and the small-market clubs will be left with inferior technology. The Royals starting third baseman will be a series of levers and pullies operated by a carnie. Which is an upgrade from the hobo they’ve got now. [via]
Coach Pitch baseball represents everything that’s wrong with America today: instead of trying to bridge the gap between people unable to feasibly execute something, some jagoff steps in and takes over under the presumption that he or she is doing a “good deed.” Hey, if a kid can throw it from third base to first, why the hell can’t he throw it from the mound to home plate?
Anyway, yeah, kids’ sports are automatically worse with parents around. Moms and Dads, drive your kids to their games, wash the uniforms, and bring the orange wedges when it’s your week, and then stay out of the way. You’re to blame for a generation of anti-social deviants with entitlement issues. Thanks for ensuring that I’ll never sleep on a plane again. Not that I’m bitter or anything.
The Japanese are a very proud and devoted people, so I’m not terribly surprised that this Japan League infielder tried to decapitate himself by diving for a foul ball so close to the stands. I’m sure it would have hurt so much more shaming his fellow countrymen by letting that ball go. I understand that being carted off in a gurney is very prestigious over there, but seriously, this guy will be back on the subway groping women in no time. It’s just their way. Who am I to ridicule their culture? I’m just a sports blogger…
