- Never a good sign when a Major League Baseball team is unsure of where a player is and if that player will show up for his minor league rehab appearance. Actually, it’s a bad sign any time an employer in any business can’t find an employee and doesn’t know if he or she will show up for work. The fact that it’s a professional athlete being paid a lot of money to show up just exacerbates the situation a bit, that’s all. The athlete in question is Chicago White Sox pitcher Bartolo Colon, who was scheduled to make a minor league rehab start for Triple-A Charlotte yesterday. Leading up to the game, the team had no idea where Colon was. They attempted to contact him through his agent, but his agent didn’t know where Bart was either. "I know where he is supposed to be right now. He's supposed to be in Charlotte, preparing to start Thursday," White Sox GM Ken Williams said Tuesday.. "Efforts to contact his agent have been successful. Their efforts to contact their client have not been so successful.” Now if it’s me looking for the cherubic Colon, I’m checking a few specific places first: all-you-can-eat buffets, doughnut shops, county fairs with copious quantities of fatty foods and any other place where large supplies of unhealthy eats can be had for a cheap price. As it turned out, the Sox were worried about nothing. Colon joined the team’s Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte and made his scheduled injury rehab start. Furthermore, he was pretty effective in his time on the mound, going five innings and allowing two hits and an earned run for the Knights in their 7-1 victory against the Norfolk Tides. Colon got the win and although there’s no guarantee he will ever get anywhere close to the form that made him the 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner, at least the injured left knee he’s been rehabbing appears better. Colon injured the knee after starting the season 3-6 with a 4.23 ERA in 11 games, but the White Sox have remained in the thick of the AL Central race without him. According to Williams, making yesterday’s start could keep Colon on track for a return to the majors later this month. "If he's in Charlotte on Thursday and he starts, then we have him on the program we want him to be on and he'll be a candidate for [our] doubleheader July 24," Williams declared. So while I haven’t heard any details of where the heck Colon was the past few days, at this point it becomes largely irrelevant. Not that it’s irrelevant to the all-you-can-eat buffet he nearly put out of business during his disappearance, but even so…….
- What kind of lowlife do you have to be to rob a church and its parishioners during their Sunday morning service? Sure, a church full of people focused on their worship might make for an easy mark if you’re looking to break into a few cars and score some loot. I have a special helping of contempt for the two a-holes who robbed the Hillcrest Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Nashville this past Sunday. Pastor Melvin Warfield was in the middle of a baptism when he stopped and was forced to address the congregation because of what he saw going on out in the parking lot. Warfield stopped mid-baptism during a packed, midday service Saturday to spread another message. "If you had anything open, if your windows were down, if your car was unlocked, somebody's out in the parking lot walking around," Warfield said he told the congregation. "I think we baptized 12 that morning, and so I was actually standing in the water. It's kind of bold to see individuals coming out and robbing you during worship.” Warfield actually spotted the men using a wheelbarrow owned by the church to carry hundreds of dollars worth of the church's equipment, such as electrical equipment and DVDs, from the church's multi-purpose building. The thieves were able to escape and although the pastor says these two tools are already forgiven, the church plans to prosecute if the men are found and arrested. Good for Pastor Warfield and the Hillcrest Seventh-Day Adventist Church, because being forgiving and showing compassion to people doesn’t mean you have to allow them to trample all over you. “We do want to redeem them and we do want this to be a life-changing experience for them, but they do have to kind of own up to what they have done," Warfield said. Not that I’m a huge fan of law enforcement, but this is one case where I’ll be rooting for the cops to win…….
- Jon Heder’s career hasn’t exactly taken off the way it should have following his brilliant performance in one of my all-time favorite movies, Napoleon Dynamite. I could watch that movie hundreds of times and it would still be funny….but I digress. While Heder did make an appearance in a 2008 episode of the now-defunct My Name Is Earl, he hasn’t exactly become one of Hollywood’s leading men since his breakout role. Maybe that will change now that he’s inked a deal to star in a new Comedy Central sitcom described by the network as "groundbreaking.” The show will team Heder up with his Blades of Glory co-star Will Ferrell, who will write and produce the project. I’m not sure what to make of this whole mess, but it will star Heder as an unemployed IT specialist who moves back in with his parents and younger brother in their small hometown. It won't debut until next year, but so far Comedy Central has ordered 10 episodes with the option to pick up the series for 90 more depending on how successful the show is. Who knows, maybe Comedy Central is looking to add a good show to its airwaves outside of The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. The USA network has done a solid job of developing original, quality series as a basic cable network, so perhaps Comedy Central can do the same. I’m not willing to put any money on it, mind you, I’m just saying that it’s (theoretically) possible……..
- Riot Watch! Riot Watch! It’s been too long since we’ve visited with our riot-loving friends in Peru, so I thought it was high time to journey back south of the Equator for some social dissidence, stick-it-to-The-Man action. As fate (which I don’t believe in) would have it, a massive national strike led by unions and civil groups is now in full swing. The country's largest workers union, along with the teachers and transportation union, among others, are spearheading a fantastic protest effort that has already necessitated the dispatching of thousands of police and military forces were dispatched in the streets of the capital city Lima Wednesday. The protests are against the free-market policies of President Alan Garcia, which Peruvians apparently aren’t down with for some reason. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter what the policies are or why the people of Peru don’t like them. As long as they spark protests and riots, it’s all good in my book. However, I know that some of you actually like to know why these riots are taking place and being the kind host I am, I’ll oblige. See, during his three years in office Garcia has forged a free trade agreement with the United States and used decree powers to make it easier for companies to gain concessions in the Peruvian Amazon regions. Those concessions in the Amazon have drawn serious outrage from indigenous groups. The clashes between indigenous people and governments looking to take their land and make a profit off of it are as old as time, but always fascinating. Often, the government merely seizes the land it wants by force, screws over the indigenous people and barely compensates them for their loss (think United States v. Native Americans). In this case, indigenous groups staged a large protest near the Amazonian city of Bagua in northwest Peru on June 5 and things escalated quickly, leaving at least 35 dead. This week’s protests were smaller but equally contentious, spurred by Garcia's announcement Tuesday that a shakeup of his Cabinet is imminent. Meanwhile, the Peruvian government is seeking to entice workers to return to their jobs by offering bonuses of 20 soles, or about $7. The protests in Lima were far from the only demonstrations taking place around Peru this week. Other demonstrations caused the cancellation of school in the city of Ayacucho and a highway was blocked in Arequipa. Not the best protests/riots I’ve ever seen, but a solid effort by the Peruvian people and for a good cause……..
- Nearly everyone and every place has summer traditions, things without which it just wouldn’t feel like summer. For some, it’s the county fair. Other places, it’s a trip to the beach or the family’s cabin on the lake. However, I have a hard time imagining that any of those traditions are more special and meaningful than a great annual rite of passage we here in the United States have come to know and love. Of course, I’m speaking about Operation FALCON (Federal and Local Cops Operating Nationally), an annual sweep that teams the U.S. Marshals Service with local law enforcement in a summer arrest bonanza. Operation FALCON has become an annual staple of the summer calendar and this year, more than 35,000 fugitives across the United States were arrested in June, including 2,356 fugitive sex offenders. “This might be considered the cream of the crop for the most violent felons that are out there. For example, we arrested 433 murder suspects,” said U.S. Marshals director John F. Clark. Anything that takes murderers and sex offenders off the streets is cool with me, I just hope the marshals and cops making the most arrests in the sting were those on my Operation FALCON fantasy team. I really felt like my FALCON draft was strong this year, as a I focused on veteran U.S. marshals in the southeastern U.S. in the early rounds and….well, I digress. The bottom line is that thousands of dangerous criminals were apprehended and marshals also confiscated 82 firearms and 2,400 kilograms of narcotics. The operation mainly targets felony sex offenders, but clearly law enforcement doesn’t discriminate in what type of criminal it will bust as part of this operation. Its success can be illustrated by the results obtained in cities like Cleveland, where the operation resulted in 1,211 arrests in a 30-day period, including five for homicides. Typically, the U.S. Marshals office in Cleveland arrests about 100 fugitives in any given month. So while you may want to hang on to that boating trip or week at the beach as your summer tradition to cherish, perhaps it’s time to make some room at your summer table for the tradition of Operation FALCON……..
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