- I’m on the record as saying that to know Manny Ramirez is to love Manny Ramirez. You don’t need to know him personally to love him; you need only know the tales of his hilarious antics over more than a decade in professional baseball. He plays left field and cuts off throws from his center fielder who is only 20 feet away, he disappears into Fenway Park’s Green Monster left-field wall to take a leak during games, wears sunglasses with a built-in MP3 player during games and does a million other “Manny being Manny” things. Earlier this season, he raced back to the fence to catch a fly ball, ran an extra 10 feet post-catch to high-five a fan sitting in the front row and then turned around and fired a laser back to the infield to double off a runner at second base. I can’t remember ever being offended at something ManRam did….until now. The Red Sox were playing a three-game weekend series in Houston when ManRam approached Jack McCormick, one of the team’s traveling secretaries. A traveling secretary deals with ticket requests by players, hotel accommodations, meal money for players and the like. So Manny had a request for 16 tickets for Saturday’s game and he took it to McCormick but gave him less than a day to fill it. When told by McCormick that he may not be able to get all 16 tickets, Manny responded by saying, “Do your job!” and shoving McCormick to the ground. Ramirez and McCormick later discussed the incident in a private meeting, during which the left fielder apologized and smoothed things over. “That's over,” Ramirez said Sunday, according to the report. “We're fine now.” You may be fine or say you are, ManRam, but this isn't just Manny being Manny. It’s Manny being an a-hole, amigo. Stop shoving team employees because they don’t accede to your ridiculous and impossible requests all the time. Go back to hitting home runs, hot-dogging it around the bases and high-fiving fans in the left field stands.
- Must be nice to have a high-ranking member of your government who isn't ignorant and/or in denial about global warming and its effects on the environment. While our un-esteemed leader W. refuses to admit that global warming exists - well, he may not be smart enough to comprehend the word global or the word warming, let alone the two of them together - Britain is fortunate enough to have a member of its royal family actively working to live a “green’ lifestyle. Even if that member of the royal family is a dorky, awkward adult prince who will never inherit the throne, I salute Prince Charles for his efforts to save the environment. The princes has converted his 38-year-old Aston Martin to run on biofuel made from surplus wine, which could also have positive effects for alcoholics. After all, if you need your vino to run your car, maybe you won't have as much to drink. The car was a 21st birthday present from Queen Elizabeth, the monarch who just won't die. It will fit right in with Charles’ other cars - multiple Jaguars, an Audi and a Range Rover - that he had previously converted to run on biodiesel fuel made from used cooking oil. Those details and much, much more are available in the 2008 Annual Review for Prince Charles’ household. The review is a report detailing the household’s income and activities for the 2007 fiscal year. Also in the report is a claim that Charles and his immediate family have reduced their carbon footprint by 18 percent through various environmentally conscious policies and actions. So there you have it, a world leader who not only recognizes the threat of global warming but is bothering to do something about it, amazing….
- All over China, it’s clear that the country is pumped about putting on its best face for the Summer Olympics as the world looks on. In the town of Weng’an, paramilitary police are infesting the streets like locusts and detaining hundreds of people after protests and riots over the alleged cover-up of the murder of a local teenage girl by police. I think you know where I come out on this one….power to the people. These great human beings took to the streets and allegedly looted and burned police and government buildings to make their message clear. And as you should also know, on my Riot-O-Meter, burning buildings takes you to a top-notch, Level 5 riot. In a scene eerily reminiscent of the Nazi invasion scene in Casablanca, police trucks rolled through the streets blasting messages for suspected rioters to turn themselves in. Just a thought, Chinese police, but if these people were pissed off enough to riot and torch government buildings, do you really think they’re going to surrender without a fight? A big, bit thumbs up to everyone involved in these riots. The Chinese government is exactly the type of operation that would cover up something like the police killing a teenage girl, so keep fighting against The Man….
- The menace is back. Just days after a federal court judge in Los Angeles granted an injunction preventing celebrity gossip website TMZ.com from posting clips of a sex tape featuring midget movie star Verne Troyer and blocking a porn distribution company from taking orders for the full-length version of the tape, the tide has turned. Ranae Shrider, Troyer’s former girlfriend and the woman on the tape with the diminutive actor, has signed a declaration stating that the tape was filmed on her video camera and as part-owner of the tape, she is authorizing TMZ to post it. She is only giving clearance to TMZ and the porn distributor is still barred from taking orders for the tape, but this is still a negative development for the rest of us. Once again there is a chance that you could be bumping around your apartment or computer lab and come across someone watching this horrific, scarring piece of cinematic crap. I suppose that if Shrider does have an ownership stake in the tape she can give permission to anyone she wants to use it, but that doesn’t make it a good idea. So be forewarned and take the necessary evasive maneuvers to ensure that you and your family are properly shielded from this mess…
- The Major League Baseball All-Star Game is turning into quite the extravaganza. Already a parade down Sixth Avenue with legendary hall of famers and all-stars past and present taking part was scheduled during All-Star weekend. Other events were also on tap leading up to the final Midsummer Classic ever at Yankee Stadium, but thankfully someone in MLB’s offices made the wise decision to include ‘80s hair metal in the proceedings. What’s a party without a free concert by aging, leather-clad hair rockers such as Bon Jovi? I guess Warrant, Poison, Skid Row, Def Leppard and Motley Crüe weren’t available, so Jon Bon Jovi and his crew will have to do. They’ll play a free concert in Central Park on July 12, which I’m sure won't be at all chaotic that night. I’m actually looking forward to $6 bottled water, $12.50 personal pan pizzas and $5 hot dogs, but that’s just me. What better way to prepare for the All-Star Game on July 15 than a free concert by a hair metal band with exorbitantly inflated prices on concessions? Party on….
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