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This is crazy!

The lovely Joyce K and the Boys on WKYC

The lovely Joyce K and her handsome sons appear in this story on our local NBC affiliate WKYC- TV (yes John, in HD)

Women's Professional Fast-Pitch

Last week as John and I were surfing looking for any baseball in the afternoon (John thinks we can watch any MLB team at anytime of the day) we came across Women's fast pitch. I thought it was the Women's College World Series so I stopped. It was not - apparently they have a professional league now. It was entertaining as the centerfielder for Philadelphia was making some unbelievable catches. The thing that I was mostly disturbed about was the shape some of these women were in. I know I'm completely out of shape but I'm not a professional baseball player. Yikes! Marla Hootch looks like Marilyn Monroe compared to these girls!

US Open

Holy cow - what a tournament! It has been so awesome and we get a bonus 18 holes tomorrow! Forget Sesame Street - we are watching golf!

Sara Evans

I read on People.com yesterday that Sara wants to have another baby with her soon to be husband Jay. Keep in mind between the two of them they have 7 children. Yikes! I guess she figures between her and Jay's looks the kid couldn't look too bad.

Good job Cliff Lee!

Win #10 last night. I'm glad Wedge let him come back out after the rain delay. Who would have guessed it. It would be nice to get Fausto healthy and CC pitching consistently and our bat showing up everyday - we could put a run together - I'm hoping and praying. The way they keep doing the Buffalo shuffle it looks like they are pulling all the strings to get something going. We will just have to wait and see.

I've had enough!!

Wake up bats or GO HOME!!!

Fees

A lot of places have them to protect themselves but I think in the long run it loses business. For example MCI was my long distance carrier. I probably used them once in the last 6 years because of my cell phone is now more my long distance choice. Well they decided to institute a minimum usage fee in February. I haven't had a balance so I haven't opened up my bill. Then I received a phone call asking me to pay $25.84. I said come again I haven't used your service why do I owe you this amount? The "financial" person couldn't tell me so I had to call back on Monday to the Customer Service center. Then on Monday when I got my monthly bill from them I saw what they were talking about and oh yea - the 99 cents they were charging for a paper statement was now going up the $1.99. No thank you. I feel for the people who don't have access to a computer. Maybe the government should hand those out along with the food stamps.

I think I was most amused when I called AT&T to complain about the price of my internet service going up. When I asked the guy for a discount he sat there in silence not knowing what to say. I'm supposed to get $6 off my next bill but I would rather have that credit everytime. I figure if they can give it to you once they can give it to you again.

A nice story...but...

Turns out the display of sportswomanship was not really necessary. The Ump blew the call. BTW - I use the term "sportswomanship" intentionally. I doubt guys would have done this. We tend to look at events like this and say "Sucks to be you, dude."

WAKE UP Tribe bats!

Interesting move by the Indians yesterday - they designated Jason Michaels for assignment and brought up Ben Francisco. YEAAAAA!!!!! I must admit the Indians front office is very patient but a move needed to be made. I wonder how much more patient they will be with Travis Hafner. I understand it is hard to admit you gave money to the wrong guy. I too thought last year was a fluke but now that it has spilled over into this year I'm not so sure. I wonder if the shift teams use when he is up to bat has effected him. We need to get a move on it. This happened last year and the Indians got hot at the right time - hopefully the team will snap out of it before we get buried in the basement of the Central Division.

Hulu and The Office are the Best!

I signed up for the Hulu beta, but forgot my password. After the easy password reset I watched the episode of the office I missed two weeks ago (worth the wait) and found the clip below. Joyce will enjoy this.

Tribe Looking Better

I know it is a long season, so forgive me if I got a little depressed about how my Tribe was playing. I'm still not convinced that they are the AL Central favorites, but the last few days have been fun.

Today the weather was in the 80's - the blimp was overhead and my Cleveland Indians beat the Yankees, even with Paul Byrd on the mound. John asked me "Why does Uncle Drew think Paul Byrd is bad?" and Paul promptly served up his second homer of the night to Giambi. "That's why son, that's why!"

The June Swoon Came Too Soon

Cleveland Indians fans are used to the Tribe getting our hopes up early, only to dash them by the All Star Break. Can't say they are setting the bar too high this year. As a matter of fact, a petition was posted at my workplace Tuesday and amended today.

Great Moments in Journalistic Ignorance

I'm no expert on journalism or religion, but sometimes I pick up the morning paper and almost do a spit take with my iced tea. Yesterday was one of those mornings.

Take a gander at Georgie Ann Geyer writing about the Pope's visit next week. Before I got 5 column inches into it, I spotted errors that would have never made it past her first draft or an editor if either had an even passing familiarity with the subject.

Exhibit A:

Next to his predecessor, the image of Benedict was often that of a snarling defender at the gate of Vatican ultraconservativism, standing side by side with the Swiss Guards, moral bayonets at the ready, defending the past.

Colorful. But more of a reflection of a cartoon you may have seen He is constantly looking at current writers in theology and philosophy and accepting some thought - rejecting some.

Exhibit B:

A conservative who grew up in Germany during World War II, Benedict will never agree with Vatican II, the historic 1962-'65 liberal confab of the church.

Um...he was there and helped form some of the documents that where produced by the council. Vatican 2" wasn't just about giving us guitar masses. For the record, Pope Benedict ain't crazy about guitar masses.

Exhibit C:

Most important, he has overseen the church's efforts to define a series of "new sins" that could change the world, if applied. ...

(Quoting some guy that works in the curia -ed) He went on to speak of everything from illegal drug use, genetic manipulation, environmental pollution, bad ecological practices, and economic inequality in which the poor are getting poorer and the rich growing richer, fueling unsustainable social injustice. These, he said, are the "new sins."

Those all could fit under the tried and true seven. Besides attributing this claptrap to Benedict is like holding a head of state responsible for some bureaucrat's report about a proposed change on parking regulations on government leased property.

Exhibit D:

No one knows exactly why the pope chose to come to America at this particular time.

2008 is the bicentennial of the designation of Baltimore as an Archdiocese. Just sayin'

Exhibit E:

He is, amazingly, even an admirer of much of Protestantism.

Why are you amazed, Georgie? Are you assuming that Catholic leaders are by definition religious bigots? Wouldn't we be bigots to make such an assumption?

OH! The Pressures of Blogging

I'm tempted to make no apology for my lack of blogging here and elsewhere. I'll just try to pretend that the pressures of authoring a highly popular and influential site caused me to go into seclusion.

The NYT would be sympathetic to that argument while they make guesses as to how much cash I was pulling down for my torment.

Alas, I am just kind of lazy. But I'll be back into it now. The Supreme Pontiff's visit will provide lots of fodder for media criticism and the Tribe is off to a rocky start. I'm back!

The new look of Progressive Field

I was taking the kids to the zoo yesterday and we passed by the old Jacobs new Progressive Field. Boy have they been busy re-branding the stadium. "Progressive Field" is now over the "Indians" on the scoreboard, they have two brick pillars on the outside that have "Progressive Field" (I don't remember the name Jacobs Field being here) and of course the main big sign from behind that you can see from Route 90 has "Progressive Field". I bet they have it on the back of every seat and inside every toilet stall. All of this was just two much for my 4 year old son who said he does not like the name because he can't say "Progressive" very well. I do wonder once you buy the naming rights does that give you the right to plaster your name everywhere? I guess the Dolans do not care as they got the $ and I'm guessing the city owns the stadium.

Prepare for St. Paddy's Day the Muppet Way

When Science Meets Religion

Professor Micheal Heller has been awarded the Templeton Prize. He stated:

Amongst my numerous fascinations, two have most imposed themselves and proven more time resistant than others: science and religion. I am also too ambitious. I always wanted to do the most important things, and what can be more important than science and religion? Science gives us Knowledge, and religion gives us Meaning. Both are prerequisites of the decent existence. The paradox is that these two great values seem often to be in conflict. I am frequently asked how I could reconcile them with each other. When such a question is posed by a scientist or a philosopher, I invariably wonder how educated people could be so blind not to see that science does nothing else but explores God’s creation.

Tru dat, Professor!

Semper Fi - The Comedy

I'm not a frequent viewer of the Daily Show. Stewart can be funny, but his act wears thin on me. I spent the late eighties and early nineties thinking I had invented and perfected a detached, world-weary persona with a strong dash of fool blistering detatchement. Turns out I was just immature. Wish that had paid better.

Anyway, saw this clip and thought it was pretty damned funny. Berkeley wants the Marines out, out out! And not in a "Don't ask, don't tell" kind of way.

A note to those in Florida or Arizona

Hello friends -

If you are in Florida or Arizona please do the common courtesy thing and report daily on this blog your sights and seeings at any and all MLB Spring Training facilities. Those of us stuck in the daily wind, ice and snow storms would appreciate a little sunshine sent up north.

Thanks,

Someone who wishes they were in a warmer climate